Archive for the ‘restaurants’ tag
Maurice's Gourmet Barbeque, 2515 Sunset Boulevard: October 2009 22 comments
I first wrote about this building when it was a former Quincy's. Now it is a former Maurice's. It seems the current recession has made a hash of the barbecue business, as this is the second Maurice's to close recently.
To me, the location seems a little awkward to get into and out of. I can't remember if that were the case when it was a Quincy's or if it is an artifact of all the road work that's been done on the I-26 / US-378 interchange over the last couple of years. However, the selling realtor is apparently quite upbeat about the plot as the the current asking price is $1,350,000.
UPDATE 8 November 2009: Forgot to hat tip commenter B.C.
UPDATE 22 September 2020 -- This place has been razed. Also, updating post tags and adding a map icon.
Shoney's, 1220 Charleston Highway: 1990s 10 comments
Shoney's is a place we often went while I was growing up. They were affiliated with "Big Boy" then, and always had "Big Boy" comic books as free premiums for the kids, and they had what was at that time my favorite desert, the Hot Fudge Sunday Cake.
Disaffiliating from Big Boy was supposed to help them grow, but somewhere along the line they went wrong. Perhaps it was when they overextended themselves trying to establish a hotel brand, but whatever it was, they started closing stores. Right now, the only fully operating one I can think of in Columbia is the one on Garners Ferry. (I believe that the one on Bush River Road, while still open, no longer does dinner).
I can only recall eating at this Shoney's once, more or less by accident. Our troop was coming back from a camping trip somewhere, and I believe we had some sort of van and several dads driving regular cars. Something (the van I suppose) broke down, and a good part of the troop was stranded at Shoney's (I forget whether we actually made it to the parking lot or had to walk a bit) while other transport was arranged. None of us boys had any money, so the adults brought us a meal while we waited. It never occurred to me until years later that that must have been an unexpected and unwelcome financial imposition on them. Perhaps my parents settled up later, at any rate, in the way adults had back then, nobody let on anything to the kids, and we all had a *great* time.
I guess that would have been around 1974, so the restaurant still had years to go at that point. I'm not in fact sure when it went under, but I think it was sometime in the early 1990s. At any rate, it has been a Mexican operation for a number of years now.
UPDATE 10 September 2020: Update tags, add map icon.
Hardee's, 550 Assembly Street: Early 2000s 22 comments
There was nothing particularly noteworthy about the Hardee's which once sat at the corner of Blossom & Assembly Streets, but it's a memory of a somewhat less grandiose scheme of things in that area.
I do remember two things in particular about it:
1) It was the first place I've ever seen ruin a toll-house cookie. I stopped there once feeling a bit snackish and could not finish the thing. It was like they cooked it on the same griddle with the burgers or something. At the time at least, Hardee's could do sweet, something they proved with their cinnamon-raisin biscuit, but not, apparently, after 10:30 am..
2) While the restaurant was on the way down, and maybe after it closed, the side of the parking lot facing Assembly street was filled with used cars for sale.
It's not clear to me what they are building, or going to build, there, but it couldn't have worse cookies...
UPDATE 19 June 2021: Several things. First, this building has long since been razed, and now the property is Innovation Center. Second, I will be adding the correct street address to the post title, third, I will be updating the tags and, finally I will be adding a map icon.
Hooters, 852 Mall Drive (Murrells Inlet): Fall 2009 2 comments
I've been spending some time on the coast recently (Brookgreen Gardens had a nice little fall festival this weekend), and noticed this closing while driving by the terminally-ailing Inlet Square Mall where US-17 Business and US-17 Bypass come together at Murrells Inlet.
Tracking Grand Strand closings would be a full time job as the area has incredible churn, but I can't resist listing some here from time to time. Just two thoughts:
a) The economy must really be bad if Hooters can't sell what's on their menu.
and
b) They have a pre-printed company-logo sign (with slogan) for store closings?
UPDATE 29 August 2011 -- It's now The Carolina Tavern:
UPDATE 24 June 2024 -- Adding map icon. Updating address from 825 Mall Drive to 852 Mall drive. Updating tags
Lum's Restaurant / The Shrimper, 1208 Knox Abbott Drive: 2000s 24 comments
The Shrimper was a lontime seafood restaurant on Knox Abbott near The Charleston Highway. If you've read many of these closings, you'll know I'm no fan of seafood, so I never actually ate at The Shrimper though I was certainly aware of it.
Apparently not aware enough though, as I didn't really notice its passing until quite recently. I don't have a date, but it was recently enough that many online sources still list it at this address.
The new operation is Brunches which appears to bill itself mostly as a breakfast place. I like breakfast in principle, but not enough to wake up early and it it, so I've never eaten there either. (If I'm going to do breakfast, it's usually pancakes and grits at 2am..)
UPDATE 9 June 2010: Added the 1974 Southern Bell Yellow Pages ad.
UPDATE 9 June 2010: Added "Lum's Restaurant" to post title based on comment and 1970 Yellow Pages.
UPDATE 18 September 2020: Here is a Shrimper cup that somehow came to be in my sister's cupboard:
Also updating tags and adding map icon.
Patrones Restaurante Mexicano Y Barra: 2628 Decker Boulevard (confusing status) 7 comments
OK, first Zorba's on Decker closed. Then the old Zorba's sign proclaimed that a new Italian sounding restaurant would be coming. That never happened.
Then a Mexican operation repainted the facade
and nothing happened for a long time.
Then (no picture) they put a paper sign up on the front door seeming to say (I don't read Spanish) that tacos were for sale, but apparently there was nobody at the building during the time this sign was up.
Then they put handmade signs on the Decker street-level "entrance"/"exit" placards saying the place was open:
At the same time they added a ramshackle looking shed to the left of the portico and posted another sign in Spanish that appears to say something about Tacos and tortiallias (Tortas?), but note again that there appears to be nobody there.
Then they took the shed down, and again nothing appears to be going on at the place (the "OPEN" roadside signs are gone too):
And all the while the whole place appears to be for sale:
THEN they put a canopy on the outside deck. Still nobody seems to be there.
Then they turn the lights on the main sign, but the building is dark at all times:
So --- your guess is as good as mine!
UPDATE 2 November 2009: Now the canopy is gone from the deck..
UPDATE 7 August 2019: Add some tags and map icon.
Wade Hampton Hotel, 1201 Main Street: Early 1980s 53 comments
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA
Looking down Main Street from the Capitol Steps. Points of interest: Foreground, bronze statue of George Washington; Center Monument in memory of soldiers of the Confederacy; left Wade Hampton Hotel; right American Sentinel
The Wade Hampton Hotel was a fixture across from The Capitol when I was growing up, although I don't believe I ever set foot inside. The place had a "I was built in the 1940s" look which is enhanced by the marquee shown in one picture identifying the place rather antiquely as Hotel Wade Hampton rather than The Wade Hampton Hotel.
There was a restaurant inside the hotel called Maxim's which I have an ad for somewhere that I have not got around to scanning. It was to the effect that 5 Million Frenchmen are going to the wrong Maxim's!.
By the 70s, the hotel was on a downward slide as national chains built newer properties in more convienient locations as downtown lost its pull and the Interstates came through. By the time I started college at USC in 1980, the hotel had gone under and was being leased by the University as dormitory space much in much the same fashion as Benedict's ill-fated leasing of the old Quality Inn. I don't know if similar safety considerations in the aging building brought that situation to an end or if USC just built sufficient new space (I think Bates came online about that time), but at any rate the arrangement was terminated, and nothing took its place, so the building was finally demolished in the early 80s. I think it was an early morning implosion, which I missed since I am not a morning person, but I could be wrong.
The hotel's place on the block was taken by the AT&T building (or whatever it is called now) and a new building just going up. (Was there something else there in between WH and the crooked looking glass building?)
The views from the Capitol steps are interesting. I had totally forgotten that there was parking in front of the Capitol. Also, the Colonial Life / American Sentinel / WOLO building is really hanging in there isn't it?
Finally google turns up this. This is largely a nostalgia site but lest the retro-spectacle lenses get too rosy, there's a lot to be said for the present as well.
UPDATE 8 Sept 2010: Added Wade Hampton matchbook scan.
UPDATE 25 October 2021: Add full street address to post title. Update tags. Change expired link to wayback machine link. Add map icon.
The Hungry I / Yum Yum's Oriental Restaurant, 1709 Decker Boulevard: 1970s 9 comments
I'm pretty sure this pizza joint on Decker, now the R & R Lounge didn't make it through the 1970s, as I was very conscious of pizza, and think I would have noticed it driving (or riding) by. On the other hand the location, in a little strip mall near Percival Road with not much parking probably would not have been very inviting. (In fact, this section of Decker may have have come up since the 1970s). The pictures are not great because the sun was against me, and I didn't want to stand right in front of that open door snapping away.
Whatever the merits of the pizza, I'm pretty sure I can safely say The Kingston Trio never gigged here.
UPDATE 11 April 2010: The Hungry I was definitely gone by 1977, as that is when Yum Yum's Oriental Restaurant had a Bellsouth Yellow Pages ad for the same storefront.
(Mary's) Celebrity Supper Club, 3311 Two Notch Road: 1970s 11 comments
Fine Foods Smartly Served!
I can't actually recall any other operation in this building, right up the hill from Dick Dyer, before Ole Place Club. That operation seems to be pretty durable despite having, at one point when Two Notch was especially bad, to put up a tart sign saying This Parking Lot is not a Loading Zone for Hookers!
The 1970 Southern Bell ad for The Celebrity Supper Club, as seemed to be common then, much longer hours than are now usual for a restaurant (though there were obviously entertainment elements as well). Nowdays almost everything closes at 10pm during the week, and if you walk in at 9:00, they act like its an imposition to stop mopping the floor and take your order.. It also seems like there were more "steak" places back then than now. I don't know if its 30 years of the food police harping on cholesterol or if tastes have just naturally changed.
UPDATE 17 October 2009: Added "(Mary's)" to the post title.
UPDATE 29 December 2009: Sadly Mary Dixon passed away on Christmas Eve 2009. From The State's obiturary:
COLUMBIA — Mary Simpson Dixon, perpetually 34, passed away on Christmas Eve. She was born in the Kibbee Community near Vidalia, Georgia, to the late Alfred Oliver and Alma Louise Rabon Simpson. As a teenager, Miss Mary moved to Savannah and began her stellar career in food service by working for an exclusive hotel chain, DeSota Hotels, training staff across the Southeast. She continued working in New Jersey, Florida, California (The Brown Derby, even though Howard Hughes tried to steal her away, and served various movie stars including Joan Crawford), Tybee Beach (where she worked for the Brass Rail before opening Mary’s Nic Nacs), and Augusta, Georgia (Ship Ahoy), before moving to Columbia in the early 1950s. She worked for the Ship Ahoy in Columbia, Laurel Hill Supper Club (where Las Vegas acts and entertainers performed and requested her personally), and Dick’s Flamingo Club, where she perfected her cheese-stuffed potato.
UPDATE 29 June 2023: Adding tags & map icon.
China Garden, 724 Harden Street: 2009 7 comments
I first wrote about this building back on 10 April 2009 when I was doing a closing on Kester's Bamboo House, and China Garden may have been closed even then, at least I don't recall seeing anyone inside, and from the pictures I took then (two of which open this closing), there already appear to be signs of work around the front door.
I'm not a big fan of Chinese food, and this wasn't one of my mother's favored places, so I never ended up eating here, but China Garden has certainly been a Five Points landmark for many years. The building has been there so long that when the fatal Harden Street renovation reached China Garden, they went under the sidewalk to shore up the foundations and found there were no foundations. This caused the street work to stall in front for an inordinate amount of time while they figured out what to do. Presumably that is all fixed now..
Anyway, it's definitely closed now, and it appears that it will reopen soon as a place called Grandma's, which I expect will no longer be Asian cusine. If they keep the "pagoda" sign as it appears they will be doing, we will have two non-Chinese restaurants in town with Chinese-themed signage. (The other is Bombay Grill.
UPDATE 24 June 2019 -- Add tags and map icon.