Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I never managed to eat at this place, former location of Moe's Grapevine, although I tried once. As I recall, I stopped by one Friday evening about 9:50 and found the place in the process of closing. I was quite surprised that a "Pizza Pub" would close at 10PM on a Friday night. To be fair, they offered to make me a pizza anyway, but I really dislike being in a place that is actively trying to close, especially if I am the only customer, which I was, so I passed.

In retrospect, being empty on a Friday evening was not a good augury for the longevity of this place, and unfortunately that now seems true.

Here is The State story on the pre-opening of the place, and here is the Free Times story on the finalized "Detroit Pizza" theme.

And in the meantime, Well, well:

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

UPDATE 21 May 2018 -- Eric's San Jose is now open in this location:

Gonzales Gardens was a public housing project comprising the tract bordered by Lyon Street on the West, Forest Drive on the North, McDuffie Avenue on the East and Washington Street on the South.

According to The State, demolition of Gonzales Gardens started on 4 October 2017. I took these pictures on 1 October when the place was fenced off, but still standing. I have not driven by lately, but imagine it is all down by now.

I never knew much about the place, except that it had something of a shady reputation by the time I became aware of it in the late 1960s. Apparently it was not always that way, and in fact another State story recounts some happy memories of the place from the early years.

The Columbia Housing Authority has the most extensive writeup with a lot of interesting facts. For instance, the place was originally built largely for Fort Jackson NCOs, and was, in those Jim Crow times, initially restricted to white families only. Another thing I did not know was where the name came from: The project was named for the three Gonzales brothers long associated with The State newspaper, one of whom was murdered in 1903 by the nephew of then Governor Tillman.

Until commener Justin pointed out that it was closed, I did not even know there was an Inn At Claussen's. It still seems a little mysterious to me as I can't find any public announcement of it closing anywhere. It looks to have been an interesting place, with some two story rooms with their own spiral staircases. The reviews are all over the map, but there are several mentions that the nearby trains are *loud*, which I can believe given the location of the tracks and trestle.

The web and facebook pages for the hotel are gone, but here is the Wikipedia page for the historic bakery

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 7 June 2019 -- The State says this space is being converted into 29 studio apartments. The story also confirms that the Inn closed due to the great flood of 2015.

M Grille at the corner of Lady & Pulaski Streets is closed. I was a bit confused at first as I had mistaken M Vista at 702 Lady for this place. They are still open:

Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 15 March 2021 -- As noted in the comments, this place is open again. ColaDaily has the story. Also adding map icon.