Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The only Mongolian food item I can ever remember heaing of is Kumis: fermented mare's milk, something I've never had the slightest interesting in trying, and interestinly apparently *not* available at HuHot. Apparently was *was* on the menu is that you picked out a bowl of noodles, vegetables & meats, took it to a central grill where it was cooked in the sauce you selected and you could repeat that for as many times as you liked for one price. I think the closest I've ever come to that was a place in Seoul, except you had your own little grill and could cook your items yourself there.

The Yelp reviews are all over the map. Apparently the folks who liked it really liked it, and those who didn't *really* didn't.

Looking in Alphabetical Closings, I see this is the former site of Za's, Loco Bandito's, CW's Taproom and Naughty Macs.

(Hat tip to commenter Sandra>

This is the former site of Vegas Sports Bar & Grill and numerous other nightclubs over the years. Looking at the pictures for that closing, it appears that the only change was to put of a new name on the sign.

I have to admit it's a clever name though.

I think I've mentioned my aversion to feathered fare several times here, so it should be no surprise that I never darkened the door at this Church's Chicken more or less accross from the old Shoney's. I suppose for different reasons, not enough other people did either.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 10 March 2017: Changed the closing date from "Late 2016" to early "2017" based on the comments.

UPDATE 18 August 2017 -- It appears some sort of work has started here. The building permit is for SC Wings & Deli:

I was unaware of this place, and indeed that Sparkleberry actually had a north-of-two-notch section until commenter JohnBom mentioned it. It appears that at this point, the Sparkleberry Big T location is closed and well on the way to becoming Spring Valley Convenience Store. Indeed, the non-perishables are already being moved in.

Big T has a second location on Garners Ferry, which is still in operation.

As an aside, I note that sometime in the 80s, a really good sign salesman must have worked the Northeast: You see this style of sign up and down Two Notch from east of Rabon to Pontiac..

(Hat tip to commenter JohnBom)

Well, this is one of the last old-time "service stations" around town. Looking inside is like visiting another age. The "Maps Here" sign is particularly evocative -- there was a time you got your branded highway maps at a service station. I still have a cubby full of old "Gulf" maps, some predating the completion of the 'I' system. That was also a time when we were convinced that gas was *not* a commodity product, and that "Good Gulf" was better than "putting a tiger in your tank" or vice versa.

And a man would actually come out to your car, pump the gas, check your oil, check your tires, check your battery and radiator and wash your windows.

Their sign says they were here for 33 years, which is a good run.

And for context, you can see two former closing in the background: here and here.

UPDATE 16 March 2017 -- Rather Hopperesque:

UDATE 1 September 21018 -- Something is happening here:

UPDATE 21 February 2019 -- Now a Cheap Way convenience store:

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You will have noticed the upgrades to the various First Citizens branches around town. In this case I actually think I like the new branding better than the old, which is definitely not always a given.

I was wondering what business this nice little old house next Triangle Lock & Safe on Sunset was. Looking at the pictures I took, I couldn't even get a street number (for some reason I didn't get out for a closer look at the time), but google maps came through and identified it as 1410 Sunset and the former site of yet another of the Midlands title loans operations. They listed in the Feb 2012 phonebook, but not the Feb 2013 one, so I am tagging the closing date as 2012.

Another Irmo area note from commenter Homer today:

It's not every day that I need a vehicle serviced so I had no idea that
this business had closed. Tony, the owner, passed away in October and
the family decided not to keep going. I didn't realize it but they had
been in business for 40 years. These guys were top notch when it came to
auto repair. I used to take my old Corvette in there for service and
Tony, Woody and all the guys there always did me right. A lot of people
are going to miss this place!!

I remember a shop in Fayetteville that clearly hadn't even looked at the reason I brought the car in when they called me to pick it up. Always nice to find someone who knows what they are doing!

(Hat tip to commenter Homer, of course)