Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Nice 'N Natural, located on College Street in between Main and Sumter Streets (and next to the former USC Burger King) shares an attractive old brick building with Cool Beans coffe shop. It's within easy walking distance from The Horseshoe, and in general, I have found parking in the area to be reasonably easy, at least in the evenings.

I mention evening, because I must admit that while I've been to Cool Beans numerous times over the years, I never made it to Nice 'N Natural. I was kind of vaguely aware it was there, but I was never in the area during its open hours, and had the tenuous impression from the name that it was a "healthy" place (ie: not something that would be high on my list). The Free Times brief description sort of re-inforces that impression, though "whole grain" attracts me more than "alfalfa sprouts".

I think I read in The State a week or so back that the owners reported that business fell off after 9-11 and never really recovered. If that be the case, then they've hung on for 10 bad years, which is certainly something to be proud of (and of course their 28 years is an extraordinary run for any restaurant).

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Main Street, Columbia S.C. Showing location of ECKERD'S Modern Drug Store, Located at 1530 Main Street, Columbia, South Carolina

ECKERD'S Modern Prescription Department Employs Six Registered Druggists. 1530 Main Street, Columbia S. C. "Creators of Reasonable Drug Prices"

ECKERD'S Modern 42½ Ft. Soda Fountain. Seating Capacity of Luncheonette Dept.: 176. "Creators of Reasonable Drug Prices". 1530 Main Street, Columbia S. C.

ECKERD'S Modern Drug Store, Employs a Personnel of 42 Sales People. "Creators of Reasonable Drug Prices" 1530 Main Street Columbia, S. C.

There is no date on these postcards, but from the cars in the first shot, I'm guessing post-war, but not by much -- I'm sure a car expert (hint) could pin it down much more closely.

To the best of my memory, I never visited the downtown Eckerd's, and in fact don't recall it in operation at all. Given that, tempered with the fact that some people have mentioned from time to time in the comments that they do remember it, I'm putting the closing as probably the early or mid 1960s.

The building is certainly an imposing one, and one which does not say "drugstore" at all, with the stone facade and dramatic arches on the second and third floors. You might almost expect to see someone clutch his chest dramatically and fall over the third-floor railing as a gunshot echoes up and down the street..

And, in fact, the name plaque styles the building as the "Historic Canal Dime Savings Bank", so presumably it was built for that long vanished operation. The last postcard suggests that Eckerd's was a deep, narrow, one story operation. Does anyone know if there was another business upstairs?

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I first became aware of Ship-A-Hoy in Augusta Georgia. The restaurant has changed owners since then, but when I started working in Augusta, the Athens Restaurant & Taverna at the foot of the Bobby Jones Expressway was run by a man who had some family connection to the Columbia Ship-a-Hoy and he had several black and white photos of the interior posted by the cash registers.

Given that it had closed before I was born, I had never heard of Ship-A-Hoy, but the pictures showed a really elaborate interior, someplace that very much said "fine dining" rather than "fish camp".

As near as I can figure, the restaurant would have been about where the parking garage in the NBSC building now is. Certainly the Ship-A-Hoy building itself is gone, as currently NBSC is 1221, and the next building is 1241. The phonebook ad (from 1959) lists the address as 1235, but the postcard lists it as 1235 - 1237 suggesting Ship Ahoy was a pretty big place.

I have to admit I never made it to Gotham Bagel Cafe. Originally, Manhatten Bagel / Holey Dough was much closer than what was then Rising High on Main. After Holey Dough closed, Brueggers was still closer, and has a worthwhile bottomless coffee card deal. Then, even if I happened to be downtown, parking would have figured into the equation. All that's to say I kinda, sorta, figured I would get around to it some day, but -- too late!

I remember two interesting stories about this place from The State. The first was interesting and quirky: It seemed that the owner had no experience with bagels at all, and was opening a bagel shop almost on a lark, and learning as she went along. Apparently she was a good learner, as the comments people have left here so far about the place have been positive.

The second story was interesting and scary. It seems that someone (I believe it was the owner, but I could be wrong) had gotten his or her clothes hooked on an industrial kneader and was in danger of being pulled into the machine and being chopped and kneaded to death, but was in the event saved by someone who had no idea how to work the machine, but found the cut-off in time.

The closing sign implies that something is in the works for this space. I certainly hope so, as the old Kress building is a downtown treasure. As of 17 September 2010, the Gotham web site is still up, but it gives no indication that the store is closed, or what might happen next.

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Then:

Now:

I was hitting Moe's at University Corner on Main the other night (in the old Big Bird slot) and parked down on Devine Street, between Main & Assembly.

I couldn't help but notice that Varsity Billiards is closed. The lighted sign has always been a retro treat, and it's a shame to see it dark. (The first two,lighted, pictures are from February 2010).

The phone does not seem to have been disconnected, and the building permit is for "repairs", so perhaps they will be back. I'm not a pool player, but it would be a shame to see Varsity behind the eight-ball.

UPDATE 20 July 2017 -- Well, this is unexpected: The Free Times says Varsity is open again.

This building, on North Main at the intersection with Sunset Drive, was obviously a fast-food joint of some kind, but I'm not sure which one. I believe at one time or another, a commenter said it was a Church's Chicken, but the street numbers don't match for that. If anyone can identify it, I will change the post title to reflect that.

Currently, it's a TitleMax/CheckMax which seems to be one of those chains favoring old fast-food locations. Interestingly, directly across the street is another "hermit crab" operation, a Family Dollar which moved into the old Eckerd's.

UPDATE 15 July 2010: OK, based on the comments (and confirmed by the 1998 phonebook), this place is identified as a Long John Silver's and I'm changing the post title accordingly.

Well, it appears the North Main Deli is no more. I never stopped there, and don't know a lot about the place, but from the sign on their door, it appears to be another casualty of the times. I believe the former Cici's Pizza from Decker is moving in next door, so I guess it's lose one, win one for this block of Main.

As a total aside, does anyone know if "North Main" is an official name? If you live on this section of Main Street, do you get your mail as "XXXX North Main Street", or just "XXXX Main Street"? I've seen it both ways, and I never know how to list the correct addresses in post titles and the alphabetical list.

(Hat tip to commenter Marsha.)

These photos are courtesy of Becky Bailey, who writes of the El Roco Club:

Around the corner [from the Fountain Bleu Club] (sort of) on about the same latitude on North Main Street was a place called the El Roco Club, which was the white counterpart. That’s where the country bands like Ira Dimmery and the Hired Hands played.

and

It was actually closed at the time I took the pictures, but glad I did. Has since been taken over by a church and the signage is all gone. Took these in July 2002.

There is apparently an active El Roco Club in Columbia right now on Koon Road, but from what I can tell it has no connection to the old club. The only other information I have found online about the old club is a general word picture of the times in an online appreciation of local entertainer Nicola Domenico Pizzuti:

Music entertainment was lively in Columbia during the late 40s and 50s. These were happier times and local musicians were hungry for the opportunity to play live. There never seemed to be a lack of bookings for small combos, and there was always need at the last minute to "grab a musician and go". Public and private clubs about town were rocking and reeling in those post-war days. Nicola was right in the thick of it and, you may have been in the audience when he played! Throughout the years, he played at various popular public and private clubs, where big band dance music was the "music of the day." He teamed up with other local musicians, all of whom either played to fill in where called upon or were members of a combo. Nicola played with local musicians Jay Pace, Greg Bissell, Don Davis, Tom Isbull, Neal Alltee and Sam Cantrell. Occasionally, he filled in and played with combos where the late Paul LaRosa crooned. He also filled in a time or two with the late Jimmy Farr’s small group. In those days, most musicians in Columbia booked gigs anytime and anywhere and many times actually did "grab a musician" en route to a booking. He played many times at the El Roco Club, and Ft. Jackson Officers’ and NCO clubs, Retired Officers’ Club, Columbia Country Club, and Forest Lake Country Club.

(Big thanks to Becky Bailey!)

According to this press release Baker Brothers American Deli came to South Carolina on 29 November 2007, with the opening of the Lexington store. That was to be the first of three stores in the Columbia market. I believe this store, beneath the upscale Adesso condos (themselves built on the site of the former mini-mall housing Pappy's and Robo's Video Arcade) was the second Columbia location. A google search suggests the third store was at 1730 Main Street, but I can't bring that one to mind without driving by.

At any rate, according to the franchaise map here all the South Carolina stores are now gone. The map is actually rather interesting in that persuing a Texas, Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky stragegy seems a bit unusual. Things could apparently be going better though, since apart from Texas (which is the home state and has 12 locations) each other state has only one. I never ate at Baker Bros. From the menu and web site, it seems sort of like another McAlister's Deli, a restaurant I never really warmed up to.

As mentioned by commenter Dave, the next business in this slot looks to be a yogurt operation called Yog Hut. My impression based on peering in the corner entrance is that Yog Hut will not be using the full Baker Bros space though.

UPDATE 21 May 2010: Commenter ChiefDanGeorge says the Yog Hut entrance is a different space, so I've added a picture of the Main Street doors. He also suggests that the Yog Hut opening is stalled.

UPDATE 8 July 2010 -- Well if it was stalled, it's unstalled and open now:

(Hat tip to commenter Mike)

UPDATE 28 June 2019: Add tags, map icon.

Swensen's was a fairly popular restaurant chain in the 1980s. I'm not sure I ever went to the Columbia location (now The Hunter Gatherer) at the corner of Main & College Streets, but almost anywhere we went on a trip, there would be a Swensen's. I know for sure there was one on The Market in Charleston (now an Applebee's, I think) , and we ran into them on class trips to DC and Florida as well. The ad above from the 1985 Southern Bell phonebook has the logo I recall.

Swensen's started in San Francisco as an ice cream stand, but by the time it franchaised and locations hit the Southeast, they were casual dining restaurants (with ice cream, of course) and I think I had burgers there more often than anything frosty. Their fries were a bit unusual in that rather than being longer than they were wide, they were sort of square and waffle-hatched.

According to Wikipedia during the 1990s, the chain shrunk from 400 stores to about 200, and when it started to expand again, it was mostly overseas. I think the Columbia store closed during that wave of shrinkage. The current tenant in the building, The Hunter Gatherer brewpub has left the interior in a rather rough (if interesting) form. I suspect it was somewhat less distinctive as a Swensen's but I could be wrong. I would be interested if anyone can recall whether Swensen's had the main-floor and catwalk layout used by THG.

UPDATE 16 April 2010: Added Campus Club South and TW Muldoons to the post title and identified what year the ad is from. Added The Quarter Moon to title.

UPDATE 16 October 2023: Here is a story on the history of Swensen's. Apparently the orignal store is still around after the franchaise operation collapsed.

Also adding map icon and updating tags.