Wendy's, 676 Saint Andrews Road: late 2000s 25 comments
This closing continues a recent series of dead restaurants on Saint Andrews Road. One of the very first closings I did was of the Wendy's on Two Notch in Dentsville. If I recall correctly, I said how much I enjoyed Wendy's when they first came to town, and how they gradually seemed to lose their way as many fast food chains have.
I don't know specifically what happened to this store (being on Saint Andrews can't have helped!), but the last two times I have had occasion to stop at a Wendy's (once in Aiken and once on Forest Drive), the service and food have been very indifferent -- not at all like the can-do! store that could get you a decent burger the way you wanted it almost by the time you finished being rung up. I don't doubt the disasterous ad campaign with the guy wearing the red "Wendy" pigtails helped more than a few of their stores shuffle off this mortal coil as well.
UPDATE 8 September 2017: Added full street address and some tags. Also found this LoopNet listing that says the building is still vacant, but has recently had a plan approved to connect to the traffic light and "would be great for a breakfast restaurant".
UPDATE 13 December 2019 -- Now Ms B's Southern Soul Food:
25 Responses to 'Wendy's, 676 Saint Andrews Road: late 2000s'
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J.P.
2 Feb 09 at 7:04 pm
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Wow. I used to work here when I was in high school...
Michael
23 Feb 10 at 9:00 am
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this one I think was in an akward location and Wendy's opened up a few miles up the road at 6019 St. Andrews Road which I think couldn't have helped. I think whatever opens up in its place would do best to have access to the stoplight at the intersection of Jamil Road as it is so challenging to get out of
Andrew
8 Jul 10 at 12:33 pm
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After checking my photo archive, a photo I took of this place right after it closed allows me to confirm J.P.'s notion of this Wendy's closing in late 2008
Andrew
20 Jan 11 at 11:37 pm
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Thanks, I'll update the post title closing date.
ted
21 Jan 11 at 12:29 am
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So one day I'm driving up the big hill on St. Andrews Road. I happen to look over at Wendy's, and, at the pick-up window, is an OSCAR MEYER WEINER MOBILE!! I nearly ran off the road.
Mike
23 Sep 11 at 6:55 pm
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ted
23 Sep 11 at 11:01 pm
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Folks, I noticed some folks working on what appeared to be the HVAC system on the roof of this building and the lights were on inside giving me the impression that something is about to go down here (will advise if I can conclude anything further)...
Andrew
4 Dec 14 at 4:58 pm
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@Andrew- Any ideas? A Golden Chick?
Toby
13 May 16 at 12:12 pm
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There was a sign listing the space for sale and signage referring them to the Auto Money Title loan office further up St. Andrews Road...so I don't see anything and frankly I wish that when something does open that they could sync it up with the traffic signal at Jamil Road...
I would welcome Golden Chick but I think I also would love to see Popeye's...I've even thought about tearing it down and building some other shop of some sort and then redoing the entrance to sync it up with the Jamil traffic signal...
Andrew
13 May 16 at 1:10 pm
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If they don't hire better people at 6019 St. Andrews this wendys won't last . wish i could speak to the owner before they run it in the ground . rude, do such dumb things
19 Nov 17 at 9:33 am
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Wendy's on Bush River Road across from Dutch Square Mall was the first fast food restaurant in Columbia to install a drive through window. The year was 1976. I remember it well. I was working as the assistant Manager at the Burger King on the other side of Dutch Square Mall. We thought the idea of a drive through window was so unique, we left Burger King at lunch and went to Wendy's on the first day the window was open and ordered chili at the drive thru. It was only a few months afterwards a drive through window was installed at the Dutch Square Burger King.
Back in the day that was a very busy Burger King. Friday and Saturday nights, we would have customers lined up out the door waiting to order. We had four cash registers and did not take credit cards. We had hot dogs with chili, Hot ham and cheese sandwiches and all the other food like the Whopper and Big Fish sandwich were just so much better back then than today.
I went to "Whopper School" for three months to learn how to manage a Burger King. As a manager we had to know how to do EVERYTHING, from taking out the trash to cleaning the milk shake machine to prevent bacterial contamination. And we made each sandwich the same way every time unless it was a special order. And what I mean by that is, Mayo, ketchup, lettuce and tomatoes went on the crown, or top bun, mustard, pickles and onions on the heal or bottom. All the ingredients had to be spaced evenly, especially the pickles. Burger King wanted the sandwich to taste the same all the way through from the first bite to the last. Not get ketchup in the first bite and the two pickles in the next bite and just mustard in the third bite. McDonalds is notorious for that. Buy a Quarter Pounder with cheese, and all the pickles are on one side of the sandwich. Back then Dutch Square Mall was very popular, unlike today, it was always packed. I'll bet Homer remembers.Rick
19 Nov 17 at 11:11 am
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Yeah Rick, how well I remember. Before I left to start my project someone (sorry, can't remember the name and don't feel like searching for it) submitted a post recollecting about Columbia Mall being THE place to hang at for a child of the 80's. I stated to post something about Dutch Square being the place to be for a child of the 70's such as Rick and myself.
I had many a burger at Rick's Burger King as well as frequenting Chappy's Fish N Chips, Arby's and my favorite Taco Cid (RIP). Dutch Square was the place that all of the high school kids went to hang on the weekends. Many hours spent cruising the parking lot trying to impress the girls (usually resulting in utter failure). If the guys weren't trying to pick up chicks they were comparing their rides. We didn't bother anyone and no one bothered us. You didn't worry about some jack ass pulling out a gun and trying to shoot the place up over something stupid. There was some (maybe a lot) of underage drinking and wacky weed floating around but no one had trouble on their mind, We were out for a good time.
Let's see if I can retrace a typical route through the mall (thanks to Ted's earlier posts of old tenants). Let's start at Woolco. I never really shopped for anything other than the cut-out record bin they had. I picked up some gems in there for something like $.99. Outside Woolco was the Magnavox store. Always stopped by there to check out the 'fancy' console color TV's and other electronic equipment. Next was Jerry Weber's tobacco shop. Just the aroma of the of all of the blended pipe tobacco was heavenly. Next stop, Record Bar. I never really bought a lot there, mainly browsed. Their prices were always a bit higher than Sounds Familiar (my go to record store) and when your a teenager every penny counts. After all, you had to have some money for a Chick-Fil-A. Other stops as I made my way down the mall were, in no particular order, Cromer's (everyone had to watch the monkeys. Boy that would never fly today! And there were the fun house mirrors at the entrance. There was the Orange Julius. I had to grab one of those every time I went. Waldenbooks and Browz-A-Bit were other stops along the way. Waldenbooks was basically for browsing and picking up a magazine or such. Browz-A-Bit was full of cheap paperbacks and pulp. These cheap books introduced my to Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein. I also picked up several of the terrible Star Trek episode adaptations by James Blish. Another stop I would make would be to Hickory Farms. The aromas from that store rivaled those of Jerry Weber's. This was another place where a kid of limited means couldn't afford anything but the free samples were very tasty. Then there was a stop at the Barrel of Fun arcade. I always seemed to have enough money to load up on tokens to play the likes of Pac-Man, Galaxians, Space Invaders, Dig Dug, Galaga, etal. The final stop was the Holy Grail of them all, Radio Shack. Rick an I have both expressed our love for this store. I still have a set of Mach Two speakers that sound as good as they did 30+ years ago.
The final two places of worth would be Baskin Robins and Morrison's. For someone that lived in a vanilla, chocolate, strawberry Baskin Robins was heaven. Whenever I went to the mall with my folks we had to have lunch at Morrison's. My Mom and Grandma loved the place and my Dad despised it. He always said he felt like a hog being herded to the trough. I was always partial to the turkey and walnut dressing.
That just about sums up my Dutch Square experience. If you read this Rick, I'm sure you can put in your two cents....
Homer
21 Nov 17 at 11:26 pm
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Nice recap there, Homer. Do you remember when the Magnavox store was pushing their quad sound system (guaranteed to replace stereo)? I heard a 4 channel Grand Funk album in there one afternoon and it was awesome.
Next door to Record Bar was a head shop, in a mall no less, called Comstock Lode with the smell of patchouli incense wafting out the doors.
The Woolco also had cheap 8 track tapes from bands that were not quite ready for airplay that I bought regularly.
It was always fun to see who you might run into at the mall.
Joe Shlabotnik
22 Nov 17 at 4:03 am
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One of the nice things about Dutch Square when it first opened is that there were a good number of local businesses in it, Berrys on Main, Tapp's, Brittons, Louries, the pet store and the before mentioned Cromers. Also at the time Whites, Eckerds and Morrison were considered regional chains. One store that Homer failed to mention was Woolworth which was also a good place to shop if you were low on cash. Also I found it sometimes easier to get into the mall from that store than from the other entrances.
Tom
22 Nov 17 at 6:29 am
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Dutch Square was a great Mall when it opened in 1970 through I guess the early 80's until Woolco closed, then it started to slowly go downhill from there. Now it's only a shell of its former self. That whole area over there isnt at all what it was at one time...nothing stays the same I know, but still, at one time it was a hot spot for shopping and things.
Del Bazemore
23 Nov 17 at 12:47 am
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@Joe - quad sound was something that totally slipped my mind. I recall being intrigued by them but I don't think I ever heard one in action. After the old GEX on Broad River Rd. closed a flea market moved in for a while. I stocked up on bootleg 8-tracks from that place. I still have several in a closet.
Homer
25 Nov 17 at 11:03 pm
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That Wendy's across from Dutch Square Mall will always stick out in my mind for the day some friends and I were having lunch there. We had just sat down to eat when out the corner of my eye I saw a drink cup fly through the air on the other side of the dining room. I looked up just in time to see a man stand up and yell out a four-letter word at his wife and small child. He then marched over to the nearby glass door, busted out the glass with one kick of his boot, and walked through to the outside. There was a moment when my friends and I looked at one another and wondered if we shouldn't get out before the guy came back in and shot the place up.
The manager ran outside and waved the guy down, and when we saw what appeared to be a reasonable conversation taking place, we figured it wasn't likely to escalate, and the cops were soon there to fill out the reports and so forth. For a moment, though, I wondered if we were going to become footnotes to that particular location's history....
Alaska Jill
27 Nov 17 at 10:49 pm
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This former Wendy's has had plywood insalled on some of the windows and plus some shrubbery, tree limbs (along those lines) was being hauled off it looks like...
Andrew
4 Apr 18 at 6:32 pm
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This building which I thought was being prepped for a new eating place now has a for sale/lease sign on it (my thought is that perhaps it was in the process of becoming something but something happened that put the brakes on whatever was supposed to be there)...
Andrew
27 Aug 18 at 11:19 pm
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A place called Ms. B's is about to open here it looks like according to the roadside signage...
Andrew
24 Oct 18 at 6:18 pm
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Drove by this morning - Ms. B's Southern Soul and is open.
Monaca
2 Nov 18 at 9:29 am
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I spy: a missing italics closing tag...
Andrew
18 Dec 19 at 9:55 pm
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D'oh!
ted
18 Dec 19 at 11:14 pm
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Folks I have seen signage leading me to believe that a place called Braza Chicken will be moving into this space soon.
Andrew
9 Mar 24 at 9:35 pm
This Wendy's closed up shop recently in early December 2008. I remember stopping by the week prior to their closing and grabbing a bite to eat, oblivious of any knowledge to their demise. Then driving by the next week, and surprised at seeing the whole restaurant stripped bare and closed up!
Clearly, the St. Andrews/Dutch Square area is cursed. :/