Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I'm not sure if this place on Two Notch next to Tiffany's is closed yet, but it was in the final stretch when I took these pictures a few weeks ago. Apparently the owner is retiring. They opened on 4 April 2006, so that's a ten year run, not bad at all.

(Hat tip to commenter Amy)

UPDATE 11 October 2018 -- I should mention, that for whatever reason, this place never did close. Perhaps the retiring owner changed his mind, or found a buyer for the place as a going concern:

UPDATE 11 February 2020 -- As of May 2019, this place is closed as per the comments. And the follow-on operation is All Lacquered Up Nails & More:

I did not know this:

I just always figured wicker meant woven with those pencil sized plants.

At any rate, this longtime Two Notch stalwart will be closing soon.

The real estate listing has an interesting aerial picture of the vicinity, although I don't know that I would emphasize the proximity to the airport for a Dentsville property..

UPDATE 13 September 2017 -- This is now open as CK Beauty Supply. It appears to me they might have just left the "CK" in place from "WICKER". If so, clever!

I've been misplacing and finding these pictures ever since commenter Rick sent them, but here they finally are. Commenter Rick says:

Ted,

Attached are a few photos of my store at 2941 Two Notch Road when our new sign was going up. It does not show the building very well but in the back ground just past the McDonald's sign, you can see the old Chappy's Fish and Chips sign that you mentioned in your Carzzz 2941 post. You can also see my old 1976 blue corvette that was in the middle bay of the picture I sent from my Five Points location.

I would also note that in the background of the first picture, you can see the old AMC dealership, where I bought the worst piece of junk ever assembled: the 1983 Renault Alliance. Man, was I ever glad to see the last of that marvel of Franco-American technology.

The building on this lot is now a dental office.

Soul food purveyors Kiki's Chicken & Waffles have left their old, cramped, digs in Fortune Square, and have moved into the old Sticky Fingers location at Columbia Mall.

Judging from the parking lot Sunday 6 March, they will have no trouble filling the larger building..

There was a time, when I was living in Fayetteville, that I went to Ryans's serveral times a week for lunch. They had a good salad bar with the unusual topping option of roasted peanuts instead of sunflower seeds. They also had hoops of cheddar on the salad bar, and with those and the hot yeast rolls, you could make a decent impromptu semi-melted cheese sandwich to go with the salad.

As it happened, my work colleagues and I eventually discovered that the nearby pool-hall (go figure..) actually had a better lunch buffet and we kind of fell out of going to Ryan's, but I had generally good memories of the place until I had the occasion to drop by the Georgetown location a few years ago and be generally unimpressed, a condition which continued through my one visit to this Two Notch Road location in the Wal-Mart outparcel. I get the feeling from the company's recent travails that perhaps I was not alone in my unimpressed state, and the chain recently announced the closure of 74 restaurants of which this was apparently one:

(Hat tips to commenters James R & Sidney)

UPDATE 29 October 2018 -- Now open as Magnolia Buffet:

I have to admit I was not even aware this little Two Notch spot existed until I saw MizTerry's comment that it had closed. I have to admire the slogan, as whatever else you might want to say about it, it is undisputably true. As it happened, it was easier to get in and out of this lot than I expected as there were breaks in the traffic due to the lights up and down from this spot and because of the fairly wide suicide lane. I gues that doesn't matter now though, unless I want a tattoo..

(Hat tip to commenter MizTerry)

I've written about this little walkup in the Lil' Cricket outparcel at the corner of Two Notch & Covenant before here.

Since then, it has gone through two more incarnations, one as Wright's Eatery (first two pix) and most recently as K-Wayzz Corner Grill (last two pix). I don't really have an opinion about K-Wayzz, but I enjoy the use of Eatery for Wright's. It brings to mind old Fleischer Popeye cartoons, and the whole diner era.

Gold's Gym moved into the old Ashley Furniture Homestore location in 2010.

Now the local operation which had the Gold's franchaise has decided to rebrand their five Columbia locations as MUV Fitness (I won't attempt the heavy-metal umlaut):

I don't know why Gold's didn't want to expand, but they have apparently been having their own problems at the corporate level: Gold's Gym President and EVP Leave, New CEO Appointed.

(Hat tip to commenters James R and Andrew)

This Two Notch mattress store was once one of Columbia's many Blockbuster Video locations. After that closed in 2010, A Goodnight Sleepstore moved in for what turned out to be about a five year run. I noticed recently (on one of our long runs of sunless days) that they are now running a closing sale, and the lot has a real estate sign up.

UPDATE 7 June 2016 -- Well, we are now into the 6th month of this closing..

UPDATE 27 September 2017 -- As commenter Andrew notes, this store has now finished closing, about a year and a half after it started:

UPDATE 8 May 2019 -- The north side of this building is now occupied by Domino's Pizza which moved here from the adjoining Polo Plaza.