Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

"Rolls or cornbread?"

I snapped these two pictures driving by Lizard's Thicket on Beltline; perhaps I can get some better later. At any rate, the chain is renovating this old Shoney's building, and it will be closed until that is done.

I believe the nearest other Liz is the one on Forest Drive, also in a former Shoney's.

UPDATE 9 April 2019 -- I don't have a picture, but this location has been open again for a good while.

UPDATE 24 July 2020 -- Closed again, due to COVID-19 staffing problems as is the Airport Boulevard location:

UPDATE 10 February 2021 -- Open again, again:

UPDATE 31 January 2022: As mentioned in the comments, closed again for staffing issues.

UPDATE 5 July 2023 -- Now Moctezumas:

UPDATE 6 July 2023 -- Daytime pictures:

UPDATE 17 June 2025: Updating tags.

Commenter MikeJ points out that The Pour House in Five Points has been closed since June, though it is scheduled to re-open soon.

I suppose it's been The Pour House for quite a while now, but to me this spot will always be Frank's Hotdogs.
(Hat tip to commenter MikeJ)

Midlands Shopping Center started out as a virtual twin and sister site to Trenholm Plaza, anchored by two groceries, a five and dime and a post office. Over the years, however, it has failed to thrive and has largely moved beyond retail. With the recent demolition of the old A & P building, I thought perhaps somebody had a plan for the place, but I see today that it is all up for sale.

I have had my eye on this location of Carolina Wings & Rib House because the chain has been cutting its Columbia operations to the bone, and I figured this peripheral coastal location wouldn't last much longer. In fact, the place was open for the Memorial Day weekend, but by the time I went by again in late July it had apparently (from the state of things inside) just closed.

This location was in Litchfield Beach, in an outparcel of what was the Litchfield Piggly Wiggly shopping center (but which is now the Bi-Lo shopping center. Although I suspect that the general troubles for the chain were the biggest problem for this location, I also note that it is not visible from US-17 which can't have helped either.

UPDATE 20 April 2020: Add tags and map icon.

Utopia in the old Doc's Gumbo Grille location on Rosewood has moved to 4330 Fort Jackson Boulevard, the old Pizza King location across from LaBrasca's.

According to their Kickstarter for moving info, they lost their lease here, which suggests that something new will be going in fairly quickly. The place has seen something of a revolving door set of restaurants since long term tenant Keg O'Nails moved out.

(Hat tip to commenter Travis)

Update 11 August 2014 -- Here is the new location:

Commenter Justin pointed out this old style, stepped facade roof, grocery on Gregg Street just down the hill from Gervais. I believe I have rendered the names correctly -- Gregg Street Groceries obviously came after, and overwrote, M. H. Baxley's Groceries. This sort of neighboorhood grocery used to be pretty common, but has now been mostly replaced with convenience stores on the one hand and supermarkets on the other. Now, the Five Points Food Lion is very convenient to this location by car, but back in the day, it would have been a long walk to Eden's.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

This Toyota Tercel station wagon was the only car we ever bought from Toyota Center. Usually we dealt with Dick Dyer since they were a lot closer, but for whatever reason, Toyota Center had the car we wanted at the time we needed it (even then, 5-speeds were getting harder to come by). The car (which we called The Leatherneck based on a title in the detailing) was a bit of a dog, as Toyota never should have put an engine that small in a body that big, but that wasn't Toyota Center's fault, and as I recall they were fine.

This summer they pulled up stakes for both their new and used operations from their longtime Airport Boulevard location, and relocated to US-378/Sunset Boulevard near I-26. I have not yet seen the new location, but judging from nearby billboards they have also changed their name as part of the move.

On Airport Boulevard, the "new" car center was on the west side of the street at 1640 and the "used" car center was on the east at 1645.

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Millwood Coffee was the followup operation to Cafe Millwood after a bit of preliminary tease that it would become a pizza pub.

For one reason or another, I never got around to trying the place out, though I like coffee. I believe I did take some pictures of the place in operation, but I cannot lay my hands on them today. When I find them, I will post them.

The Harper Insurance Agency sign sometimes has a sign for the current business at 2911 as well, but today I included it for the bird's nest.

(Hat tip to commenter Diane Anderson)

The concept of Maze Mania was simple: You go into the maze, find the cheese, and get out of the maze. Best time wins.

It was a little more complicated in execution. The "cheese" was actually a box size wooden mock-up wedge with an electric rubber stamp device embedded inside it. Every day, the cheese would be moved to a different part of the maze, where it would be put on a special stand near an outlet. When you started the maze, you would be given a timecard with your start time, and when you found the cheese, you would stick the timecard into the block, which would stamp a picture of a piece of cheese on the card (proving that you completed the task), then you would try to find the exit, where your final time would be recorded. Assuming you were a kid, your parents would probably be on the observation deck overlooking the maze shouting down more (or less) helpful hints. Presumably, if you were a college student, it would be a bunch of drunk friends instead.

I only ran the maze, officially, once, probably about 20 years ago. I thought it was a lot of fun, and always wanted to take some younger cousins or other relatives there, but somehow never made it happen. I noticed earlier in the year that the place didn't seem to be open in what should be a viable, if not peak, time, and so made a point of looking in on it this summer as I would drive by at various times which led me to the conclusion that it was closed.

I finally made the time to stop and have a look at it. The big mouse billboard was in obvious need of cleaning, and the door sign said "closed for the season" without specifying what season that was. I have concluded it was probably fall 2013.

Finding my way back into the maze itself, I saw lots of signs of neglect and general decrepitude. The worse bit was a whole section of maze wall that had fallen down (or been knocked over) but overall there were a number of loose boards, and vegetation encroachment. Still, I think a good handyman with some lumber and paint could make the place runnable again with no more than one or two days work.

As you can tell from the pictures, it was a rather gray day, and started raining when I was out in the maze, and yes, I did get lost. (You can always find your way out of a maze by following the right wall if all else fails, but it may not be the shortest route by any means!)

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Glad to see y'all had a fruitful converstation without me!

Here are a few links that may be relevant:

The Shrimper, Knox Abbott, The Shrimper, Two Notch

Dutch Square Tenants over the years

Frank-N-Stein

Lum's, Greene Street, Lum's, Knox Abbott. I think Lum's is the beer steamed hotdog place Homer remembers.