Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The White Mule is another recent casualty of Main Street, following shortly after the closings of Henessey's and Kimbrell's.

I'd heard the name from time to time, but really wasn't exactly sure where it was. Judging by the stairs in the entranceway, it was a basement club, and judging from the menu on the still extant web site it was a little more upscale than your basic burgers & nachos show-pub.

The State story mentioning the closing dates it to "last week". Given that the story ran on 7 January 2012, the inference I draw is that The White Mule closed out with the year at the end of 2011.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

UPDATE 23 January 2012: Added Jammin' Java to the post title based on the comments. I recall the name, but never realized this is where it was.

Well, Badger's theory aside, I think we can pretty surely say that the Carolina Wings & Rib House in West Columbia by the Bi-Lo is gone for good.

I think this almost certainly has to be the result of their filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 9 November 2011. The chain supposedly owed between $1 and $10 million to various creditors, and I would guess that this was not one of their more profitable locations.

(Hat tip to commenter Jay)

UPDATE 20 April 2020: Add some tags, redo the street address, add map icon.

Well, the curse of 2630 Decker Boulevard seems to have struck again.

La Estrella #2 after opening sometime after March 2010 has closed as of 5 January 2012. The sign on the door suggests that it will be back, but given that no date is specified, and given that the place was remodeled extensively already very recently, I am not optimistic.

I may have missed some, but I believe La Estrella #2 is the fifth Mexican restaurant to be in this building.

UPDATE 18 April 2013 -- Well, it's been obvious for some time that La Estrella is not coming back, but it's now official, with all the chain branding painted over, and the building up for lease:

UPDATE 29 June 2014 -- Hope springs eternal, Northeast Market & Coffee House is now open here:

Well, it's almost half way into the New Year's first month, so this is the last time I'll be pushing the calendars, but rest assured you can order them all year long. Heck, you can still get 2011 and 2010 if you want them.

So, one last time, get your Columbia Closings and/or Pawleys Island 2012 wall calendars now!

Columbia Closings Large Format 2012 Wall Calendar

Columbia Closings Regular Format 2012 Wall Calendar

Pawleys Island Large Format 2012 Wall Calendar

Pawleys Island Regular Format 2012 Wall Calendar

And good reading works any time during any year! You can order my book in either paperback or electronic format. At $2.99 for the Kindle version, what have you got to lose?

Paperback:

Kindle:

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Here's a little print, and advertising shop on Broad River Road, more or less across the street from Boozer Shopping Center and next to the previous location of Palmetto Parent Magazine.

This archived version of their web site says they were established in 1985, and apparently some time around 2005, they were bought out by ASEC Graphics Services, or at least their former site started redirecting to that one..

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As long as I'm doing defunct downtown restaurants, I might as well do Mayfair Grill as it comes up fairly often. (And often gets confused with the Mayflower restaurant).

Unfortunately, it's another place I know very little about.

I can say that it first listed in the November 1954 Southern Bell telephone directory, and last listed in the January 1984 edition. They never ran a full yellow pages ad, but did have a slogan under their listing for a number of years, one which I seem to have misplaced for the nonce.

I can also say after consulting an old city directory that the property at 343 South Main was another restaurant, called Louis' Grill immediately before Mayfair Grill opened.

Here's what commenter Peter Hoffman had to say about the place:

The “Mayflower Diner” was on South Main Street, across the tracks from the station, on land that’s now part of the Swearingen Engineering Center property (the empty space between the phone lines and the track).

It was a great place to eat. A complete cross-section of Columbia would be there from students, to blue-collar, to state politicians. The food was really good ‘meat and three veg’ and served on willow-pattern plates and the prices were something a student could handle.

It’s been about 30 years since the place was demolished in the name of ‘progress’ but I still miss it.

And here's an amplification and slight correction from commenter badger:

Oh, and that little diner on South Main was actually the “Mayfair” Grill. I think it was open till around ’85. Across from it was the old SCE&G headquarters, currently occupied by USC.