Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was unaware of this newish pizza joint until commenter Heath mentioned that it was closing. It's down the section of Sumter Street north of Elmwood, someplace I hardly ever go. Apparently a co-owner made himself notorious on social media recently and that hurt business, or at least that's the take at The State. Well, I don't do social media, so I missed all that, and anyway apparently that gentleman is no longer involved with the restaurant, so I decided I would check it out before it closes on Saturday.

It's a very small place, with only one lowtop table that I would pick as a favorite, but there is also some bar and hightop seating. You order at the counter, but they do bring the food to the table. They are fancy enough that they don't have pepperoni as an ingredient, so I ordered the Pizza Margherita (pictured above). I thought it was pretty good. The crust could have been a little crisper, and I whould have preferred a basil leaf on each slice, but it was quite tasty. I could never be a regular here because they do not have fresh brewed tea, but they do have some beer, wine and bottled drinks.

Here are stories on the closing from The Free Times and Cola Daily

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

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Wristwatch Doc used to be in Forest Acres where Marco's Pizza is now, but moved to Knox Abbott in April of 2014.

When the old Oscar de la Renta watch my father gave me in the 1980s started losing time, I took it here and they fixed it pretty quickly. (Well, I think they just replaced the guts, but that's fine with me, I'm a George Washington's Hatchet kind of guy.)

Unfortunately, I dropped it again a few months ago, and it's losing time again. Not sure where I'll take it this time.

Several folks in Have Your Say talking about watch batteries. If I'm in town, I take mine to Roof's on Forest Drive, and have never had a problem.

The wierdest time I ever had replacing a battery was when my watch stopped while I was spending a week working in DC. There's a big mall on the, um, blue, I think, line, Pentagon City or Crystal City, something like that. I metro-ed down to that and found a jeweler who told me: No problem! We'll send it off and have it back to you in two weeks. I asked if anyone had, in fact, ever taken them up on that, and apparently the answer was no.

Looking further there, I found something like the Watch & Sunglasses Hut, which did not inspire confidence, but I was there and didn't have any better options. The guy took the back off easily, and replaced the battery fine. Then he was having a dickens of a time getting the back on again, and I started to worry that he was going to bend it, or break the crystal with all the pounding he was doing. Finally he turns around to his counter and says, I guess I'm going to have to use this thingamajig that puts the puts the backs back on. He puts the watch in it, works a screw and presto: the back is on. I'm like, well, I dunno, but if I had a device for putting the backs of watches on, that might have been my first option..

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

While I was at Landmark Square the other day, I noticed an empty storefront near the anchor.

Somehow I missed the story a few years ago, but Shepherd's Corner Christian book store closed in May of 2017 when the owner moved back to West Virginia.

The store started in Cedar Terrace, and moved to this spot in 2002, for a total of just under 40 years of service.

Elite Pawn & Gun moved into this space after Ole Timey Meat Market. They last listed in the February 2017 phonebook, so I am going to mark the closing date as 2017.

The new tenant is SMP Phone Doctor, a cellphone sales and repair shop. I'm not sure what is going on with all the trucks.

UPDATE 11 July 2019 -- I'm updated the post title with "Moved", as I saw the new location for this place, which is in the old H. Rubin Vision Center closer to town:

I have had my eye on this building, just past Maurice's, for years, as despite there having been a number of businesses in it, I never saw that any of them were ever open. Or at least that's how it appeared to me.

I have more pictures somewhere, and when they turn up, I will post them.

At any rate, it appears that after Tres Bien left, the place got a major facelift, though it does not as yet seem to be leased.

UPDATE 7 June 2019 -- Here are some (not all) of the additional pictures I mentioned. These date from 13 March 2016, so I am changing the date in the post title from "2018" to "2016".

UPDATE 10 July 2019 -- Interesting, Here's what's not coming to this spot:

The owner of a Mauldin massage parlor has withdrawn her request to open one near downtown Columbia.

Yuzhen Zhu had applied with the Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals for a special exception to permit a massage parlor on Beltline Boulevard near Devine Street. The U-Relax Massage parlor would have been located next door to Maurice’s barbecue at 714 N. Beltline Blvd.

City Council member Moe Baddourah said city staff told him the request has been withdrawn permanently.

I noticed this empty convenience store at the corner of Garners Ferry & Hazelwood roads the other day. A little research shows that it was a Pantry, which became a Kangaroo, which became a Circle K which was finally superceded by a more modern location.

You can see it here on the LoopNet listing with the pictures showing the gas canopy and island (with Marathon branding) still in place.

It's a pretty good location, with a corner spot and traffic light access, so we'll see what happens.

UPDATE 29 March 2023: Updating tags.

I like Dollar General well enough. It's kind of like a slightly down-market drugstore without a pharmacy, and can be easier to zip in and out of than a Wallgreen's and much easier than a Walmart. I'm not sure what the problem here was. It could be that they just want to build a freestanding store in the area as that is what most of their new stores are, and the area is building up. On the other hand, maybe it's not built up enough and they weren't making any money. (In other words: I don't know!).

There are some good exterior and interior pictures of the store in operation here.

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

UPDATE 12 June 2019 -- Adding "Moved" to the post title as it turns out this Dollar General has moved to a new freestanding store per the comments.

UPDATE 11 July 2019 -- Here is the freestanding new location around the corner:

We'll stay with Decker Village for another closing. The store at the far right end of the plaza started as an Eckerd, transitioned into a Rite Aid and is now a Walgreen's.

This is the least Walgreen's looking Walgreen's in Columbia, and is the only one I can think of off the top of my head that is not a standalone building. To be fair, it wasn't a very Rite Aid looking Rite Aid either.

The Free Times reports that Pho Viet closed on 28 March of this year, something that I had not noticed.

I have only had Pho once, and it was here. I thought it was quite good, but I didn't care for the fact that they only allowed one tea refill.

This building was originaly a Burger King, and after that, it was a Zesto. In fact, you can still see the Zesto influence on the drive-through and Thank You signs.

The Free Times also reports that this is not the end for Pho Viet but that they are moving to 9308 Two Notch Road. This is the former site of Farm Bureau Insurance, and in fact that building was setting up to be a restaurant called First Class Bar & Grill which never came to fruition, but which probably cut down on the prep work for Pho Viet.

On a semi-related matter, there is apparently some type of major construction going on in this plaza, judging from the storage containers all about. I have seen a number of Food Lion stores being upfitted recently, so perhaps that is is, though I did not see any evidence of construction at Food Lion itself.

UPDATE 18 December 2019 -- Now Submarine Crab, one of the inexplicable wave of new crab restaurants in town:

UPDATE 14 May 2020 -- The new Pho Viet location at 9308 Two Notch is open (or at least was open before COVID-19):