Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I'm pretty sure that this Pizza Hut was the same operation which used to be in a little plaza further towards Dentsville more or less across from Columbia Mall. That whole set of buildings was razed and I can't quite recall what was built there afterwards.

Anyway, that was a classic-era Pizza Hut and I had enjoyable meals there many times. I never ate in the new location, and pretty much gave up on Pizza Hut years ago. The owners of the chain just destroyed everything that made it enjoyable and ran it into the ground. I think that owners who knew what they were doing could bring back the red cups, the distinctive buildings, the salad bar, the table cloths, in-house cooking and make a good return on retro stores.

Oh well, that rant aside, I can say that this location closed on the 16th, and has yet to be cleared out. You can read about it in The State and the Post & Courier.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

The Sub Station II slot in the Columbiana food court has already been, well, not boarded-up, but the curtain based equivalent -- That's it behind the black backdrop left of Dragon's Breath.

I've never really warmed to Substation II -- I've tried the Cedar Terrace location several times, and have never been too impressed -- I would rather have Jimmy Johns or Subway amongst the sub shops.

According to The State, this location opened in 2024, so it did not have an especially long run here.

(Hat tip to commenter Dustin)

Friends House (no apostrophe apparently) was the follow-on in this Publix plaza suite to Chen's.

Commenter James R notes that the rent on this place went up and the owners opted not to renew. Currently the storefront is empty.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

This former Dairy Queen had been the Eggroll Station for 35 years before it closed in December due to the this, the adjacent Capitol Square shopping center, and the old Al's Upstairs location being bought for redevelopment.

I never ate at this place, which is connected to Eggroll Station / Eggroll Chen on Crowson, but my sister reported it as very good.

You can read about the closure and redevelopment in The State, The Post & Courier or Westmetro News.

As for the redevlopment, it sounds very ambitious, but one property I conspicuously did not see mentioned was House Of Raeford, which, if the breeze is right, can put quite a kibosh on activities in the area.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

This building, on Broad River Road just North of I-20, has featured here several times, first as an Applebee's and most recently as Tha River. After that, it started to set up as a Blaney's, a local wing chain with several Midlands locations.

It may be too soon to apply the "Never Opened" rubric, but given that the Fire Marshall considers this a vacant building, and given that the posted door notice is from October 2025 with a re-inspection mooted for December 2025 and that it is still posted, I would say that things don't look promising.

This Ashland Park storefront has been a number of restaurants over the years, from Low Country Cafe to Steve's. Full Bellies moved in after Steve's closed in April of 2025, and closed just before Christmas of the same year. You can see their farewell message here.

I had to check out the phones. They are in very good shape, but there is no dial-tone. If you look closely, you can see that the nameplate on them is for Blackbeard's Seafood, a place I never heard of and have not featured here.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I have only been in a Freddy's once, at the Sunset location and I got a milkshake which I thought was pretty good.

The State reported the opening of this location in 2018, with the chain representing that

The surrounding residential neighborhoods around Lake Murray make the location a great fit for Freddy’s.

I guess in the event eight years later perhaps not so much.

Here is The State story on the closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Kenneth)

I believe the first tenant in this spot after it was built was Bruster's Real Ice Cream, but Hibachi Express has been there quite a while now. I hope it will be there in the future, but the place appears pretty well gutted by the Saturday morning two-alarm fire.

The restaurant was open at the time, but luckily all the crew and customers are safe. So far the cause of the fire is unknown. You can read about it at The Post & Courier or The State or see video at WLTX or WIS.

(Hat tip to Mr. Guy)

As reported by The State, the Clutch Coffee chain has been bought out by Dutch Bros coffee (which is apparently quite large, though I had never heard of them), and the local Clutch outlets will be closed to remodel & retool before coming back as Dutch Bros locations.

This one, in Lexington is by the former Sonic location, which itself is apparently retooling to become an ice-cream shop.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I believe I have only been in a Captain D's once, at a family event, where I ended up getting the corn-on-the-cob side item since I am not a seafood lover.

At one time, Captain D's & Shoney's were under the same ownership, and they tended to locate the two restaurants close to each other. This was the case on Two Notch and Garners Ferry, and was also the case here. In the event the Shoney's pairing with this Captain D's was closed in 2012, razed, and rebuilt as a Cook Out.

This store soldiered on for 13 more years after its partner succumbed, so that is some stick-toit-iveness.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)