Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

OK, yesterday's post on Peddler Steak House certainly seemed to get some fond memories, so I'll try another defunct steakery today: The Chopping Block.

I used to notice The Chopping Block driving I-20 west. The lot butts against the Interstate just after the Economy Inn, and there used to be some signage visible there. I'm afraid I never ate there though. In fact, I don't think I ever went onto Briargate Circle at all until I started eating at Delhi Palace and figured out I could circle around behind the motel and come out at the stop light if I needed to turn left onto Broad River Road. I didn't even know there was a post office back there.

The ad (from the 1976 Southern Bell Yellow Pages) makes it sound like a pretty happening place. I was unaware of the nightly "entertainment" and extended "blockbuster" happy-hour. It all sounds rather upscale, which is not the current profile of the area ("upscale" has migrated to Harbison..) The address is now occupied by a mortgage company, and the buildings all appear to be fairly new, so I'm guessing the original restaurant building was torn down at some point.

Peddler Steak House, now Bar None seems to be a small southeastern chain of franchaised steak restaurants which started in Sanford NC on an amateur basis and was instituted as a restaurant in Southern Pines NC. I have never eaten in one myself, but when I was living in Fayetteville, I recall several people mentioning The Peddler very favorably.

I'm not sure when the one in 5 Points opened (the Yellow Pages ad is from the Southern Bell 1970 directory), but I don't think it lasted into the 80s as I don't ever recall it being an option when I was driving and picking restaurants on my own. (Not that I would have picked a steak place on my own anyway, but I think I would at least have been aware of it..)

UPDATE 14 September 2009: A lot of love for the place in the comments! And a correction on the closing date, so I have updated the post title to say "early 90s" rather than "1970s".. My poor sense of passing time strikes again!

UPDATE 16 September 2009: Added Poor Richard's to the post title due to information in the comments.

Some time in the 1990s, I started a quest to find the best pizza in Columbia. I never really finished it as I was living out of town at the time, and my father and I fell into a routine of hitting The Parthenon on Saturdays when I was in town. (In fact, I'm pretty convinced that The Parthenon would have been the winner anyway as I've never had pizza here that beat it.)

Anway, during that process, I checked out Tony's on Knox Abbott, The Villa in Five Points, Pizza Cucina near Spring Valley and a number of places that don't come readily to mind right now. This building, now a real-estate office, was one that was on the list, but which I never got to. I went so far one night as to drive there with my father rather than hitting The Parthenon, but there didn't seem to be any obvious place to park, I didn't want to ask him to walk far, and the place (the name of which I have forgotten) actually looked rather uninviting, so we turned around. I think it changed hands not long after that.

Taco Bell continues to retire its "old style" south-western looking stores for larger new stores. This one is on Broad River Road just to the south of the abandonded Pizza Hut.

It's interesting that they've left so many of the fixtures inside the old store, but on the other hand, what are they going to do with them? They don't fit the concept at the new store.

Although I'm not realy sure what the Taco Bell concept is anymore. I guess they have a small niche between places like Moe's, Qdoba and Chipolte and table-service Mexican restaurants, but I'd much rather have Moe's on the fast-food end and go to a table-service place if it's more than a burrito.

The new store is visible in the last picture and is 1928 Broad River road, though further down the street than the adjacent numbering would lead you to believe.

UPDATE 24 September 2011 -- Now open as Atlantic Seafood Restaurant:

These are the kind of businesses I notice off and on over the years, and if I think about them at all, wonder how they are making a living, until one day I notice that they are not anymore. These adjoining lots are on Percival Road, just east of Decker Boulevard.

The story, at least for the Upholstery shop seems to be a sad one, of the parents passing away, and the children not being able to carry on the business. I'm not clear on what the story of the little drive-in was as it was not detailed in the County Zoning hearing minutes which are online here. Apparently nobody even knew the name of the place.

The hearing seems to have focused on keeping the property commercial. The businesses had been operating on residential property as grandfathered operations, and when the business licenses lapsed, the ability to locate a business there did also. In this case it seems to me pretty much a no-brainer, and apparently it was approved. Both properties are now for sale, and time will tell what locates there.

Also, an interesting tid-bit came up in google when I was searching for the street addresses and "Duanne Warr", who was associated with the action somehow. As it turns out, in the minutes, he spoke for the proposed buyer of the property apparently as a realtor, but it appears he was once a Columbia heavy metal rocker cutting

One of the most insane records ever made!

UPDATE 7 June 2014 -- Commenter Sidney points out that the drive-in building has been razed, and so it has:

UPDATE 10 October 2016 -- The old drive-in lot is now about to be Tacos Nayarit Mexican Grill:

Looks like the big bad wolf has been at the door of Champ McGee's Little Pigs Barbeque and has blown the place down for a while. I'm no fan of barbecue myself and have never been there, but one of my cousins swears by this place.

The State says this is the second time the place has been laid low by fire. The first time sounds really bizarre:

The first fire happened after a homeless person crawled under the store and started a fire to keep warm. The fire soon got out of control and burned the restaurant down.

.

This time, McGee is guessing he can reopen the place in two months. Maybe he should go the third-little-pig route and rebuild in brick..

UPDATE 10 March 2010 -- They're back!

I'm honestly not sure if I ever ate at Audelo's. I think I may have, but I also may be confusing it with the Mexican place which used to be in the Big Lots plaza. One of those two places did not give you chips and salsa unless you paid for it.

At any rate, it appears that the physical plant for this restaurant is now mostly in a dumpster, so the next place in may not be a restaurant at all.

Also, there were once a number of Mexican restaurants on or just off Two Notch in the Dentsville area -- Garcia's, Cuco's, Don Pablo's and Santa Fe come to mind.

Now, I don't think there's anything until you get almost to Wal-Mart or go down Sparkleberry.

Personally, I don't want "Drama in Dining". That's when one of the couple at the table next to yours becomes aware that this is the "break up date". Drama is not pretty! I think I would also prefer my date not look like she comes from one of those societies where the women stretch their necks to prodigious lengths (not that there's anything wrong with that..).

I see that today the Fountain Bleau Club building houses The Fountain of Youth daycare center. Since the "fountain of youth" is normally something you think of in connection with old people, I suspect the name is a hat-tip to the former occupant. I'm afraid that I was shooting against the sun, so the pictures are not very good at all. I also note that in one of the pictures you can see a boarded up building to the right of the Fountain of Youth which appears to have been an old motel -- perhaps I'll run across its name someday.

(Ad is from the 1970 Southern Bell Greater Columbia phonebook).

UPDATE 17 March 2021 -- Commenter Jim Akins sends in this flyer for his band's performance at the Fountain Bleu back in the day. The 70s, gotta love 'em!

I'll change the post title if someone can reliably identify this place, but for now, all I can say is that it was an 70s or 80s looking fast food drive-through operation of some sort. The place is now 1st Choice Auto Center, and is almost on the corner of Two Notch and Beltline, in between the old Food Lion and the recently torn down McDonald's. We used to eat at the Burger King across the street fairly often, so I know I must have seen this while it was in operaiton, but I have no memory of it now.

UPDATE 23 Aug 2009: OK, looks like this was McDonald's before they moved to the corner of Two Notch and Beltline, so I'll change the post title from "Fast Food Restaurant" to "McDonald's".

Well, recent weeks have not been good to pizza operations on Forest Drive!

I liked The Original Italian Pie but found it rather frustrating in a couple of respects.

Why did I like it? Well, they had a quite good pizza, with ingredients like "kalamata olives" which, while getting more common, still are hard to find. The crust was not too thick but neither was it too thin and was chewy without being mushy. They also had bottles of olive oil on the tables to drizzle over the pizza, and the staff was friendly. In fact at the time I was going fairly often, they got to know me by sight, and would just bring out a pitcher of unsweet tea for me so I could read before and after my pizza without them having to keep making refill passes.

Why was it frustrating? The main thing was the hours. For various reasons, I am often uable to make supper before 9:30 at the earliest. That was OK initially, since while they closed at 9:00 during the week, Thur-Sat, they were open until 10:30 and I could drop by then.

After a few months however, they went into the deadly Well, we weren't too busy, so we closed the kitchen early cycle. This is a prime violation of rule #1!, and really ticks me off. I got caught in it a few times, then one night I thought I was safe as I was able to make it at 9:15, a full hour and 15 min before the posted closing and they still sprang it on me. I confess I got as argumentative as I ever do in a restaurant (which isn't much, but..). Luckily, I had the support of a feisty woman who had come in just behind me and we did get served. After that, they changed the hours posted on their door, leaving just a dash for the closing time if I recall correctly (which is, of course Sign #1), and I was not able to eat there at night anymore.

In fact I rarely got to eat there at all, since I don't usually have pizza for lunch during the week if I'm going to have to be awake and thinking during the afternoon, but I was able to go for Saturday or Sunday lunch from time to time. The closing of the Italian Pie at Sandhill was not a good sign, but didn't seem to have much effect on the Forest Drive store. However, the last time I was there, in early July, I believe, I did notice that Sign #6 had come into play: The olive oil bottles on each table were gone.

I don't know what happened in the end. As you can see from the pictures, the place is going to re-open as The Pizza Joint, so perhaps the owners just switched franchaises. That doesn't seem too likely to me however as TPJ is a "late night" chain, which was definitely not the strategy of The Italian Pie.

I encountered The Pizza Joint when I was working in Augusta. They have a location on Broad Street, and one night when it was too late to hit The Mellow Mushroom, I decided to check it out. Frankly, I wasn't too impressed since it's a New York style operation and NY is not my favorite pizza. The smallest pie was also 14-inches, which means that a single guy has to order by the slice, which I really don't like. (Also, that part of Broad Street was a good place to get panhandled).

I see that since I moved back here from Aiken, they have opened a branch there. I guess they are gradually moving East from Augusta. Perhaps if it works out here, they will hit Florence and Myrtle Beach..

They appear to be building a dining patio -- if they are able to get that done and open as the weather starts to cool down a bit, it should be very nice.

UPDATE 23 Aug 2009: Changed the post title to add Hardee's after being reminded in the comments that a Hardee's was on this lot (in a different building) before the Italian Pie.

UPDATE 19 June 2021: Adding tags and map icon. I should also now note that this building is currently The Pizza Joint and has been for quite a while.