Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

K-9 Coature is a dog grooming business that moved into this building following the the closure of Conumdrum in late 2015. I noticed today when I drove by that the the building was empty again (and that the facade is undergoing work).

It turns out that K9-Coature outgrew the space and has moved down the street to 832 Meeting Street in late April.

As far as I can tell, this space is not on the market. I don't know if that means that something is already lined up, or if they want to work more on the building or what.

UPDATE 22 September 2020 -- Now Weco Bottle And Biergarten:

I like the idea of breakfast, and the foods of breakfast. I just don't like the *time* of breakfast, so I never got to the Famous Toastery on Sparkleberry. This place was the follow-on operation to McAlister's Deli, which moved kind of around the corner and down to front onto Two Notch.

The State records the place as having opened on 20 January 2017, so they had a run of about two and a half years. If I can detect a trend in the Yelp reviews it would be that the place may have been struggling a bit towards the end.

The State also reported that the downtown location which was supposed to open last year in the Main Street Atlanta Bread location was cancelled.

I wonder if the Spring Valley High School morning traffic was a factor here? The location doesn't seem that bad to me (though Carrabba's would beg to differ), but I don't go by when school is starting or letting out.

(Hat tip to commenter Bobby)

UPDATE 1 September 2021 -- Now Allena's Southern Kitchen:

Read the rest of this entry »

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)

Read the rest of this entry »

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.