Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Tomlinson's was the follow-on operation to San Jose Restaurante Mexicano. I'm not sure when it closed, but I did the San Jose post in January of 2010, and I can't find Tomlinson's in either the 2011 or 2012 phonebooks, so I'm guessing 2011 by default. I know I've been down US-1 a few times in the past year, but I can't actually ever recall noticing it before. The red sales-ticket shaped sign is quite nice.

UPDATE 19 August 2016 -- Now Pelican's Snoballs:

UPDATE 10 May 2021: Adding map icon and updating tags.

As of the February 2010 phonebook, Palmetto Fine Cleaners had four locations listed while in the 2011 phonebook there were none. I've done one of the Broad River Road locations, but this one caught my eye last week while I was heading to lunch at Grecian Gardens (and to take some pictures of the Sunset Boulevard Fred's location).

I have to say it's an attractive little shop -- I like the Palmetto logo, both on the marquee and the back wall, and the little flower archway is a nice touch (though I'm not sure how it fit in originally).

I'll also note that when I did the closing on Burnette's Cleaners at the other end of this plaza (but with the same 2250 address) I said in error that Palmetto had been in its spot. That's what relying on googling a street address (and not driving the full length of a strip mall) will get you.

As I've mentioned before, I have a soft spot for Fred's though the Columbia stores were all somewhat out of my way. I'm starting to think though that for whatever reason, perhaps because Dollar General got here first, Columbia simply isn't a Fred's town.

Glancing at Google News for Fred's stories makes it appear that the chain is in pretty good shape overall, but when this and the Decker store join the Cedar Terrace store on the closed ledger, half of the Columbia locations will have gone under.

This will be a big blow for Sunset Court (love that marquee), which has already recently lost Wood Zone.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Doza Rizen was at the corner of Sunset & 12th Street, and as I like baked goods and coffee, was one of those places I was always meaning to get to. In the event however, it's a good ways from my place and somehow I never managed make a visit. I had noticed that there were no cars there during a recent drive-by, but figured as the official van was still parked outside, the place was still open. A closer look at both convinced me otherwise.

According to the web site, there is still a Doza Rizen in Chapin on Virginia Street.

This Charity thrift store was in the same building as The Southern Skillet just one space to the right (north). I know very little about this place other than that it was listed in the February 2011 phonebook, but not the February 2012, so I'm assuming it closed last year.

UPDATE 4 June 2012: Updated closing date from "2011" to "August 2011" based on commenter Andrew's research.

Commenter south mauldin asks whether The Southern Skillet on Sunset Boulevard in West Columbia is closed.

I'm afraid the answer is: Yes. However, it appears that the owner, or perhaps the cook, has set up a new business in Cayce as described here and here, so all is not lost.

This little building sits on C Avenue in Triangle City just west of the Charleston Highway, and has apparently most recently been a cellphone, game console and computer repair operation called iTecRepair. I believe this was the last tenant, as they booked an oline ad as recently as 30 January 2012.

I am unsure if Cdn Communications was a totally different operation, or just a different DBA name for iTecRepair.

Before the newfangled stuff, the place was one of those urban staples, a bail bonding office called Get U Out Bail Bonding (some google hits give it as Get U Out Fast, but I think that was just their slogan, as pictured in this real estate listing).

There are still some Maryland Fried Chicken restaurants on the Grand Strand, but they seem to have abandoned the Midlands sometime between the February 1976 phonebook (above) and the February 1985 one. This building, in Triangle City, is still standing, and still a restaurant, but now it's True BBQ. You have to love the pigs, and the sauce names.

UPDATE 5 April 2012: Added Rockingham's and Triangle City Diner to the post title based on the comments, and google.

When I lived in Fayetteville, there was a time when I ate lunch at Ryan's almost every day. I thought they had a very good salad bar with a number of unusual items, like peanuts (which are actually better on a salad than sunflower seeds in my opinion). They also had a cheese wheel of real cheddar, which when slipped into the excellent hot yeast rolls made a nice impromptu grilled cheese sandwich. The only minus factor was that the lettuce was shredded, sub style, rather than chopped into larger pieces as is usual.

At some point our lunch preferences shifted for one reason or another, and it was years until I tried Ryan's again. This time it was the one in Georgetown, on the section of 707 near the Wal-Mart, and I was not impressed. I don't remember if this was the case in Fayetteville, but by this point I definitely preferred booth seating, and there was none. The chairs were rather uncomfortable as well. The cheese wheel was gone, the peanuts were gone, and the yeast rolls didn't seem as good. I figured some of it might be that particular store, so several years after that, when I was on Two Notch near my lunch time, I dropped in at the store there, and found it to be about the same.

In later reading, I learned that while the chain was originally started by an Upstate company, it was eventually sold to a national chain running several different buffet operations, and I suspect this is when the place's character changed.

That firm, Buffets Restaurants Holdings Inc. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy (for the second time..) on 18 January 2012. As part of that, they closed or planned to close 81 or their 494 stores (which include Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, Fire Mountain, and Tahoe Joe's Famous Steakhouse in addition to Ryan's).

The Georgetown store is one of the ones that shut as well, but it appears that the Two Notch location will stay open as the firm works on recovery.

Props to the manager for writing a personal note.

What's next for this site? Experience would suggest an Asian buffet or a Mexican restaurant (and more power to them if that happens..)

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Bill)

UPDATE 22 April 2020 -- Commenter Mr. Bill sent in some pictures of the demolition of this building, which I manged to lose for a while. Here they are:

Well, Badger's theory aside, I think we can pretty surely say that the Carolina Wings & Rib House in West Columbia by the Bi-Lo is gone for good.

I think this almost certainly has to be the result of their filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 9 November 2011. The chain supposedly owed between $1 and $10 million to various creditors, and I would guess that this was not one of their more profitable locations.

(Hat tip to commenter Jay)

UPDATE 20 April 2020: Add some tags, redo the street address, add map icon.