Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I had mentioned La Poblanita back in August of 2015 as the follow on operation to Santa Fe Mexican Grill.

It would appear they never made it through their Grand Opening...

UPDATE 10 October 2016 -- Now Cabanas Restaurante with Honduran & Mexican dishes:

UPDATE 1 November 2021 -- Adding map icon.

East Coast Pizzeria was the follow-on operation to Brixx in this Sandhill corner apartment block. Honestly, I was not impressed the one time I ate there. It seemed like the ordering process to just get the toppings I wanted on a pizza was unnecessarily complicated, and the resulting pizza was nothing special. Perhaps I should have given it another shot, but the reason I was a semi-regular at Brixx was because they were open late-night, which East Coast was not.

It will be interesting to see if Sandhill is able to get another restaurant in here. Probably the residents upstairs will be just as glad if not, as Brixx set the place on fire once..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Anyone know how the meeting came out?

Murrels Inlet's hardluck mall Inlet Square took another blow in May with the closing of Frank Theaters.

This is actually the second set of theaters in this spot. I don't think I did a closing on it, but for many years this site was a Regal Cinema, and the setup kind of used to amuse me, since they often tore your ticket at the window and had no ticket taker inside. I'm sure many a teen just wandered in, and into a any showroom despite any lack of money or sufficent age for an "R" film.

After Regal closed, Frank Theaters leased the spot and did an extensive remodel for their cinema/restaurant/bowling/arcade conceptCine Bowl & Grille. I don't think the airport type restaurant and bar was really credible in the area, but the bowling alley portion seemed to do a good business as did the movies from what I could tell. There was no "attraction" screen like an "Imax" or "RPX", but it was all digital, and had pretty comfortable seats. I'm trying to recall the last movie I saw here, which would have been around Easter, but I'm drawing a blank.

At any rate, I was pretty surprised on my last trip around Memorial Day when I was googling movie times and nothing was coming up in Murrells Inlet: The Sun News has the story. On reflection, however, should have seen it coming. Several years before, I had seen this story about how the theater was way behind in lease payments to the mall. Since the place stayed open, I figured the two sides had worked something out. Apparently however, the theater was playing the same game as Borders Books, the "We're too important to you for you to kick us out" ploy. Given the sorry state of Inlet Square, you might almost expect that to work, but in the event, not.

In the past, when we stayed on Pawleys, we had the options of movies in Georgetown (The Hub), Litchfield (Tara), and Surfside (Deerfield Cinema), all south of Myrtle Beach. Now, the closest place is Market Commons.

This branch of South Carolina Community Bank was in front of Piggly Wiggly in Edens Plaza on Beltline.

At one time there was also another Columbia branch on Sumter Street, but at this point it looks like the bank is down to one location, in Sumter (the town, not the street).

UPDATE 10 June 2016 -- Not sure where I got my (incorrect) location info, but commenter Andrew has confirmed the one branch is on Sumter Street. Probably the link I was looking at was confusing the town and street. Also, here's a bit more from The Post & Courier on the bank's troubles. And finally, commenter Tom says this building was an NBSC before SCCB.

UPDATE 16 July 2016 -- I went around back of the building, and they must still own it because the ATM is still active:

Commenter James R points out that both businesses in the former Doza Rizen building on Sunset Boulevard are now gone.

I don't know anything about them except that Quick Stop apparently was listed as Stop & Shop in some cases, and that Golden Wireless was a mobile phone operation.

(Hat tip to commenter James R.)

The State has the story of this Lexington closing for Stephano's. The long and short of it is the owners are retiring, and the building will re-open as The Root Cellar, "featur[ing] locally grown meats and produce".

It's still hard for me to believe that a restaurant opened in 1977 has been around almost 40 years -- 1977 seems like just yesterday.

UPDATE 9 June 2016 -- Here is The Free Times on 'The Root Cellar'

UPDATE 11 July 2016 -- The Root Cellar:

I'm not sure what is being built in front of Target at 10200/10202 Two Notch, but the former Synergy Wellness & Weight Loss building has already been razed and the former Northeast Animal Clinic building is aparently not long for the world. Both businesses will continue in new locations, Synergy at 10607 Two Notch and Northeast eventually at 10171 Two Notch, but currently at 7352 Parklane.

You can see good views of the razed building at this Google Streetview link.

Here's the new Synergy location. Pretty sure from the look that it's a former Russell Jeffcoat:

(Hat tip to commenter Benjamin Higgins)

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I was driving South on US-17 from Pawleys to Charleston last Saturday when I happened to notice this former store on the East side of the road in McClellanville. I actually drove past it, but then decided to turn around since the light was good, and I had no confidence it would still be there the next time I was in the area.

I had figured it for an old small general-store/country-store type of operation, and I suspect that was indeed the case, but a closer inspection turned up the fact that it had most recently been a thrift shop, and indeed a good bit of the merchandise was still in the interior, including books, lamps and various small kitchen electrics.

Also, as I went around the back of the store, I caught sight of the old house to which the store was presumably attached, and it is an impressive two story structure dating, by looks, to the early years of the 20th century, possibly the 1920s. The brick columns and porch in particular put me in the mind of my great-aunt's Vox community house in the Pee-Dee. There are real estate signs for the whole three acre property, but since they are for commercial activity, and the house is obviously not being maintained, I suspect both buildings will be soon knocked down, which I feel is an especial shame for the house. I would love to have a house like that on a lot with oaks & magnolias like that -- though perhaps not on a four lane highway.

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