Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This store has been discussed several times in Have Your Say, but I had not yet gotten around to doing a closing on it. This Bi-Lo was out on the Charleston Highway not too far North of the I-26/I-77 interchange. As mentioned in this State story which I have linked many times, it was part of the package deal moving a number of local Bi-Lo stores to the Food Lion family. I did not drive by during the closing sale, but according to the article, the final day was expected to be 24 January, and as you can see, the Food Lion is now up and running.

Plainly this was some sort of fast food operation before it was a title loan place, but I can't quite identify it from the characteristics of the building. At any rate, North American was there in the last phonebook I have, Feb 2017, and I can't recall seeing the real estate sign out front before, so I'm just going to call the date here as 2020.

UPDATE 20 March 2021: Seems I was wrong about it being fast food -- adding Pearle Vision Center to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 3 march 2023 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place has been razed and is being rebuilt as a Freddy's:

Save A Lot was the follow on in this building to Food Lion, and opened in 2011. I'm not exactly sure when it closed (especially since the phone company seems to have stopped leaving me phonebooks), but I'm guessing 2019 is about right given we had several others close within a year or so of that.

At any rate, it has been gone long enough for another follow-on to start up: Ahora Abierto which is a panaderia pasteleria which google translate suggests is a bakery & cake shop.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I have not been able to get over here during the daytime with time to stop, but here are some night shots of the former Ozzie's on the Charleston Highway near the former Kmart.

Judging by the google reviews, it was a country sports-bar with live music. The most recent reviews are tagged, rather vaguely, 3 Months Ago, but it was reported here on 12 December 2019, so I am just calling the closing "November 2019".

To me it looks as though it might have been a restaurant at one time, and commenter badger60 suggests it was another club, called Crockett's back in the 80s.

(Hat tip to commenter badger60).

In the comments of the closing for The Captain's Kitchen on Decker, commenter Paul Armstrong offers the following information about The Captain's Kitchen:

The first Captain’s Kitchen opened in 1964 at 2628 Decker Boulevard advertising as “Columbia’s First Exclusive Seafood Restaurant”. It was owned and operated by Charles V Godwin and J D Hammond. In 1969, Hammond and Godwin formed a national franchise chain and the first franchise was built in Kentucky. In September of 1970, the second Captain’s Kitchen in the Columbia area opened at 2030 Charleston Highway in Cayce. There were also corporate owned Captain’s Kitchen restaurants in Augusta, Charleston, and Greenville. The Cayce location closed in 1975 and, in 1976, Skipjack opened in the same building, which is still standing, but now empty, at 2030 Charleston Highway. The original Captain’s Kitchen closed in 1984 and, in June of 1985, Zorba’s opened their second area restaurant in the old Captain’s Kitchen building on Decker Blvd.

I had forgotten it was a chain, and had another midlands location. Zillow confirms this building was a restaurant, and LoopNet suggests it was sold for taxes in 2012. If so, it does not appear anyone has done anything with it since.

It seems a rather odd location for a restaurant as there is not much in the area to this day.

UPDATE 8 August 2019: Add map icon.

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I ate here twice for lunch, and both times got sort of a weird vibe and the impression the place wanted to be a night club more than a restaurant. The second time I was there, a girl came out of the kitchen and sat at a nearby table, crying. It was very uncomfortable, and I decided that was it for me.

(Hat tip to commenter David B)

Well this one, across from Piggy Park and where Airport Boulevard intersects the Charleston Highway, was pretty much inevitable, but the closeout has now officially started.

(Hat tip to commenter Zach)

I was on this section of the Charleston Highway today, and noticed that the Thrift Store in the Mr. Bingo plaza was closed. There appeared to be some work going on inside, but whether it is to re-open, or they are setting up for something else, I don't know.

These are some not very good drive-by pictures of this branch at the corner of The Charleston Highway and Old Dunbar Road. There is a much better one in the real estate listing here.

I had it in my mind that the building had been vacant for longer, but it is listed in the February 2017 phonebook, so most likely it closed during 2017 (though as I said a few posts ago, the accuracy of phonebook information is dropping).

At any rate, the process of banks de-branching (pruning?) continues.

UPDATE 28 September 2021: Updating tags and adding map icon.