Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As I was taking pictures of the Burger King next door, I noticed that this Doctors Care center on Atrium Way & Two Notch was gone.

Looking in the phonebooks, it appears that it probably closed in 2009, which surprises me because I was sure I had been there more recently than that.

In fact, I went here several times over the years, most recently when I stepped on a nail in the nearby Home Depot parking lot. While, of course, it's never pleasant to go to a doctor's office, they generally seemed to get me in and out fairly quickly, and with my problem resolved or prescribed.

UPDATE 26 October 2012: As mentioned in the comments, this Doctors Care is now at 10040 Two Notch.

UPDATE 14 November 2012 -- Here are some pictures of the new location:

UPDATE 20 July 2016 -- The Atrium Way building is now Wellspring Family Medecine:

Like the Burger King at North Main & Sunset, this Two Notch Road King (next to the Post Office) is remodeling, and is closed while that takes place.

The influx of new burger chains to Columbia seems to have sparked a good deal of revamping at McDonald's and Burger King.

(Hat tip to commenter Javier)

UPDATE 5 December 2012 -- Open again!

Spring Valley Commons is the Bi-Lo shopping center at the corner of Two Notch and Rabon Roads. I've always thought of it as a strictly retail location, but the old theater has added an office suite in addition to the self-storage slots, and this storefront on the Bi-Lo side seems as though it would have catered much more to doctors' offices than to walkup traffic. I'm not sure when it closed, but it is listed in the February 2012 phonebook, so I'm just going with '2012'.

This little sandwich & chicken restaurant was across the fence from Frank's, and shared the building where Mr. B's nightclub is located. This suite is also the former location of Rookie Billiards and Gardenia's restaurant.

I'm not exactly sure what "New York" means in a sub style (I hear "New Jersey" more often), but the reviews they got on Urban Spoon were positive.

UPDATE 30 October 2012: Commenter badger points out that this storefront was once a adult video store. Actually "Chasers Wholesale Video" is listed for this storefront (3122) while "Chasers' Mags-N-Mixers" is listed for the left end of the building (3128). I think the whole building (which has three storefronts now, had only one or two then).

Frank's was a small meat-and-three restaurant on Two Notch just east of Beltline in the corner of the strip mall with AutoZone.

I have to say that I never stopped by Franks's although this Cheeseburger Crawl appreciation says it had been there quite a while and describes it in a way that makes me sorry I missed it.

Going by the door sign, the place went out in a very classy way at the end of June.

UPDATE 1 September 2012: Add some pictures of the parking lot sign.

This Dentsville mattress store is listed in the February 2011 phonebook (along with one on Augusta Road), but neither is in the February 2012 phonebook.

Meanwhile, there are lots of spare mattresses at the Ramada Inn.

"Boss! The Plane! The Plane!" — Sorry, but that had to be said

I'm not quite sure what is going on with Club Fantasy Island, a tiny strip club on Two Notch Road which basically shares a parking lot with the old Shrimper restaurant and the old Atlantic Twin Theater. (As I recall, the club got a bit of notoriety some years ago when there was a shooting in the parking lot, but I'm not sure if the incident was actually related to the club itself, a neighboring club, or was random.)

Anyway, I took these pictures back in early March 2012 because I had noticed that when driving down Two Notch at times the club should normally be open, it wasn't. I almost went ahead and did a closing on it then, but one night somewhat later when I drove by, it was open once more, and I saw it open normally after that. Then, in June, I think, it was closed again, so I don't know exactly what the status is, but if they re-open again, I'll just update the post title.

UPDATE 28 January 2022 -- This building has now been razed. Hope somebody got the neon sign:

Also updating tags and adding a map icon.

Books Revisited was the follow-on operation to the Two Notch location of The Book Dispensary, and occupied the same space in Tillman's Plaza near the Two Notch K-Mart. I believe they also used all the shelving, counter and other fixtures left over from The Book Dispensary so the shops looked very similar.

In the event, I only stopped by Books Revisited once. I browsed the Science Fiction section, and picked up a couple of Berserker books by Fred Saberhagen who had at the time just recently passed away. The staff was friendly, and the place was comfortable: well lighted and not cramped -- there used to be some real dives I surfed for used books in. So why didn't I go back? Well, I certainly hadn't ruled out doing so, but I think it's the old story of internet disintermediation and getting what you want vs serendipity and getting what you didn't know you wanted. As things stand now, I can probably get any paperback that pops into my head for a few cents on Amazon (though it will cost more to have it shipped..) rather than looking around town in the hopes I might find it, and I find that as I get older, I seem to have less and less time and interest in plowing through stock. It used to be that I would go to Woolworth's and check every LP in the cut-out bin, or check every book in the Science Fiction and Humor sections at The Book Dispensary or The Paperback Exchange or George's. I found a lot of treasures that way, and wouldn't take any of those hours back, but I'm just not willing to do it anymore. And I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect, unfortunately for places like this, that a lot of other people aren't either.

(Hat tip to commenter Brandi)

Here's another closing in Sparkleberry Square. I can't say much about Dress Barn other than they sell women's clothes, and I always thought it was an iffy name ("that dress makes you look like the broad side of a barn"). Interestingly (or not), Sparkleberry Square has now flanked Kroger with clothing closings, men's to the right of Kroger and women's to the left.
(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

When I noticed this empty slot in the Food Lion plaza on Two Notch the other night, my first thought was that GQ Barber Shop had closed, but on checking the closing I did for Arnold's Professional Cleaners last year, I see that at that time, the shop was called Simply Hair Barber Shop, and in fact Simply Hair is listed in this year's (February 2012) phonebook, so it would appear that GQ is going in rather than out. (Given that there is no "opening soon" sign, I could be wrong and GQ might have gone in and out very quickly).

Note that GQ mostly re-uses the Simply Hair sign.