Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I had the opportunity to visit Birmingham Alabama last weekend. The landscape was quite a bit different than I expected. For some reason I had it in my mind that Birmingham was a flat-land area, but actually it is quite hilly with many properties accomodating themselves to very uneven lots. My other impression of the place (which may be just a function of the areas I happened to drive through) is that it has been hit as hard or harder than Columbia by the recession. I could have taken a lot of pictures like these if I had had the time (or the inclination, as after all this isn't "Birmingham Closings").

This particular building caught my eye for some reason. It clearly did not start life as an Asian buffet -- The stone construction has a very 1970s look about it and it appears very Shoney-ish. The realtor's PDF says they are asking $1,100,000 for it. Judging by the immediate surrounding areas, I have to say: "Good luck with that.."

Well, darn -- another "I'll get there someday" restaurant is gone. On the other hand, the menu at the follow-on operation, Polliwogs looks pretty good.

The LoopNet listing for the building says that the owner of Icy's was retiring rather than business being bad at this location. It also says the building was built in 1984, which is about what I remember. I recall a promising looking restaurant starting there (not Icy's, which this site claims dates to 2004) just about the time I left town to live in Fayetteville. As for Icy's itself, it seems to me it may have started at the much-restauranted sports bar outparcel at Columbia Mall and then migrated down Two Notch, but I'm not sure of that.

UPDATE 12 June 2011 -- Here's the original Columbia Mall location for Icy's:

Also added the name Josh's to the post title based on the comments.

Commenter Dennis reported this demolition on Rosewood at South Prospect. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the original building, a sharply peaked older brick house, but there is still one in Google Streetview, which you will be able to see below if embedding works correctly and you have flash turned on (I ususally don't):

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Google also thinks that this is the web site for the Athena Technologies with an office in the razed building. It's certainly an Athena Technologies, a "geological consulting" firm that does "vibracore sediment sampling", and as the listed address is in South Carolina, I'm inclined to think it is the right one.

(Hat tip to commenter Dennis)

Well, this is already getting talked on on Have Your Say, so I may as well go ahead and post early today..

I realize this will get pushback from a lot of folks (sorry Jonathan!), but I never really found the food at Yo Burrito to be as good as the chain burrito stores. In particular I thought it didn't come close to my favorite, Moe's. The burritos always seemed on the dry side to me (particularly the rice), and while they had a lot of different types of salsa, they managed to do that without hitting on one I really liked (and they served it in ridiculously small cups). What I did like about the place was that the service was always friendly, and that they had a nice semi-patio area where you could sit and watch the passers by on Devine Street while sometimes a bird would hop in through the window -- I would do that for Sunday lunch from time to time. That may be possible again later -- note the "Thanks for 9 Years" door sign that says a new restaurant is coming this fall.

I'm pretty sure Yo Burrito started in Charleston, and that's where I first encountered them, at their original location near the College of Charleston Campus. There were famously evicted from there when the college took over the building, but were able to relocate in the same area. As far as I know they are still open in Charleston, but I have not checked..

Interestingly, I "learned" of this closing though my daily perusal of Google Analytics -- software that tells me what keywords people are searching for when they come to the site from search engines. Yesterday I got several hits on variations of "Yo Burrito closed", then commenter south mauldin confirmed it earlier today.

(Hat tip to commenter south mauldin).

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I was driving down Rosewood the other day, looking for a site mentioned in Have Your Say when I noticed the For Lease sign on this building.

Rosewood Beauty Supply is just across Howard street from Rockaway Athletic Club, and is in the same building as the first Acme Comics location. Judging by the phonebooks I have, I think Acme moved to State Street in 2009 , so I guess this store has been there two or so years. Certainly it was already there in April 2010 when I took a picture for the Acme closing (and interestingly seems to have exactly the same collection of window signs then as now).

The original Columbia Hooters was on Broad River Road near to Dutch Square and Intersection Center. Keeping abreast of trends, the chain relocated from the distressed Broad River area to Harbison, and moved into the site of the former Hops brewpub at 5195 Fernandina Road. (Curiously, when Columbia got a second Hooters it also set up shop in a former Hops, this one on Two Notch Road).

After Hooters moved, the Broad River Road building (which was not built as a Hooters, but some other restaurant I can't recall right now) was knocked down, and rebuilt as a Taco Bell which itself was a relocation for the original Broad River Road store.

Also, as an aside, I just learned today that Hooters is part of a whole market segment, the name of which I just have to stop and admire: Breastaurants.

UPDATE 24 June 2024: Update tags, add map icon.

Back to Frink Street! Google only turns up one hit for Thayer Prop Shop on Frink, but from the name, presumably it specialized in theatrical props. It doesn't seem to me that would be a large market in the Columbia area, so perhaps they did a wider business both geographically and in the definition of what a "prop" is. On the other hand, I could be completely off base, and they might have sold bass-boat or airplane propellors..

At any rate, they apparently came before P & R On Frink as that operation's sign is what is still on the building. I can say with a little more certainty that this was a used car operation, though setting the closing date as 2010 is a total guess. I did not find any hit which told what the 'P' & the 'R' stood for either.

Holy Moley that was a blow! There was debris all over the streets of Forest Acres, the stoplights at Forest & Trenholm and Forest & Beltline were out (and Trenholm Plaza dark), trees in the road on Millwood, and this tree, with downed powerlines, in Shandon just across from Za's pizza.

Going home, I had to turn around and backtrack when I came across this scene:

and then found that of course my power was gone (though luckily I didn't seem to have any trees through the roof). I got power back around midnight so I could actually post this. Hope everyone is OK!

Commenter Heath noted this closing, saying:

An obscure one for you… a take-out place in Irmo in Friarsgate Plaza (7949 Broad River Road) called Joe’s to Goes (not a type-o) closed in the fall of 2010. They had great burgers, fries, and BBQ sandwiches. We loved to get burgers on Sunday night during football season between the end of the 4:15 game and start of SNF at 8:15.

When I went out to Friarsgate Plaza a while ago, it wasn't absolutely clear to me which space was Joe's, but given that Mudbone's seems to be still in grand-opening phase, and that there's a vacancy next to it, I figure odds are pretty good it was one of these slots.

Personally, I'm not big on take-out because part of the whole "restaurant" idea, for me at least, is to get out of the house for a while..

(Hat tip to commenter Heath).

Retail 101, you might think.

I need a gift for this weekend, and thought a pair of binoculars might be nice. As I was eating lunch at Ruby Tuesday, I decided I might as well check out K-Mart since it was right across the street, and on my way home. I didn't really expect a good result, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The place was like an uninhabited cavern, with seemingly about 5 employees in the whole store. The binoculars, as it turned out, were in Sporting Goods rather than cameras and electronics, and the section was completely unstaffed. Of course the half-way decent looking ones were all in a locked case, and totally unmarked as to price. (And all, even the best looking ones, were blister-packed -- Not the "classy" effect I wanted, or as easy to wrap as a boxed item, but I was willing to live with it).

I stood for about 10 minutes with no employees in the area and no bell or buzzer for the counter. When I looked further, there didn't seem to be any employees in that entire quadrant of the store. Finally I gave up and started walking out. As I passed Electronics the guy there asked me if I needed help finding anything, at which point I complained I needed someone to sell me something. He called on the PA for an associate to Sporting Goods, so I went back there and waited another 10 minutes, then left. That's a purchase going to Target, Wal-Mart or at any rate someone else..