Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The Florence Fatz Cafe still has a billboard on I-95, and the music in the foyer is still playing, but like all the rest, this location is now history.

Apparently the Southern 500 had just been run, and I had a heck of a time getting out of here and back onto I-95!

I don't suppose this is a big surprise: We have all noticed Fatz closing locations without adding any new ones, but still I was expecting it to take longer.

The news came last week that the whole chain has shut down, with some reports of bankruptcy filings, though no actual links to such.

This store in Lexington was the last Midlands location, and I had never eaten there, but I would drive by from time to time, and observe that it seemed to be doing a reasonable business. In fact, as I was taking these shots, several cars wandered in, looking for a meal.

It's a good sized building, and there are already an Asian buffet and a San Jose in the general area, so we'll have to see what happens next here.

Here are stories on the chain closing shop in The Index Journal, The State & The Greenville Sun.

(Hat tip to commenter Alan)

I go to this Groucho's fairly frequently for the BLT (which has a whole lot of B), and like to sit out on the patio, weather permitting.

I hadn't been in a month or so, and noticed no cars and a sign on the door as I was driving by the other day. My takeaway is that they are remodeling, though I would have said the place was in reasonably good shape, with comfortable booths. (Not at all fancy, but servicable and about what I expected from a Groucho's.)

The sign and web site are a bit vague about exactly what is happening, and how long it will take, and I'm not sure what's up with all those books, which I don't think were there before, but hopefully they will be back soon.

I did some driving around in parts of the state I don't usually get to during July. I think I've featured a few of those closings already, and there will be some more in the future. As far as I know, I had never been down this stretch of road in Bennettsville before, on SC-9 heading towards Dillon.

I honestly don't think I've ever eaten in a Huddle House either, though it's possible I did in Fernandina once. Anyway, I've always thought of them as sort of a discount Waffle House, and the, almost uniformly bad, reviews for this place don't dissuade me from that notion. (To be fair, there are some positive reviews). At any rate it sounds to me they were having extreme post-COVID staffing issues, and I think you can disregard the the Now Hiring signage.

I don't know much about Mikino's -- I believe the only place I've eaten at Seven Oaks Shopping Center is Zorba's, but it seems to have gotten good reviews.

Commenter Heath noted it was closed, and commenter Gypsie found a Facebook page to the effect that it was permanent.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

Le Clos was a little French restaurant in a 1906 cottage just across the street from the Hampton Inn in Fernandina Beach's historic waterfront district. I'm not a big French cuisine fan (at least for main dishes), but the pasta looked very good, so I stopped by one night and can verify it was excellent, along with (as you would expect) great bread, and a fantastic creme brulee.

I was surprised then on my most recent visit to see the place with the sign down and stripped internally. At first the story seemed rather clear-cut as described here: The owner decided to close the place, although she was able to place the staff at other local spots. A thread on TripAdvisor suggests a more confusing story, as does the cafe's web site which suggests it may re-open this fall.

Whatever comes next, it appears the building will need some work.

I was in Summerville recently, and noticed this old-school ice cream and fast food drive-through & walk-up on the main drag. It's the kind of place you don't see too much anymore, and apparently was well regarded locally (though more recent reviews mention some slippage). As far as I can tell, they closed sometime in 2022 after February. If you look at the Yelp reviews, you can see that they used to have a nice patio out back.

I'm not exactly sure what the Lodi branding was about.

T

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I have been aware of Eggs Up Grill since they opened their first location in Litchfield Beach, in a side-room of Latte Litchfield. Somehow in all those years, I've never managed to stop by a location. This is mostly down to my not being a breakfast person at all, and the fact that they close relatively early in the day. I'll get to it eventually.

As I recall, this location was their first one in Columbia, and in fact, their first one off the Grand Strand. I still think of it as being fairly new, but it's actually been here a good few years now, and it is currently closed while they remodel. I didn't see any proposed opening date posted anywhere, but looking inside, they still have a good ways to go.

UPDATE 3 October 2023 -- Open again:

I was not really aware of La Cazeula, driving that section of road very infrequently, though I must have seen it a number of times.

It appears to have been a largely lunch oriented buffet operation, which will be replaced by another Mexican restaurant soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Matthew Benjamin)