Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Half-Moon Outfitters has moved from its location by Momo's, Tabouli and Za's up to 2912 Devine Street, the former location of Columbia Photo Supply and Rogers Brothers Fabrics.

Along with renovating the the 2912 building, they've also built a very prominent 5KWH solar array mounted on a "tree" in the parking lot. (For some reason, the linked article gives the address as 2920 despite the very clear 2912 plaque on the building wall).

It appears they somehow resisted my suggestion to re-brand as Full-Moon Outfitters when they moved into a larger space..

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Both the Trenholm Plaza and Sandhill Books-A-Million have reduced their hours. I assume the Harbison and Lexington locations have as well, though I haven't checked them.

The Sandhill hours are even worse than the Trenholm Plaza ones, being, I believe 9-9 all week except for Friday and Saturday. I find this curious as the days are getting long and school just let out. You would think that there would be an influx of under 21s hanging in the cafe this time of year...

I remember when I first discovered "big box" bookstores in DC and Kansas City, I could take the Metro to Pentagon City or the rental car to Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park and browse and drink coffee from after work until 11pm. In Columbia the Richland Mall B&N cut its hours to the point I could rarely visit years ago, but up until now, BAM had been holding out.

The champagne of bottle beer -- is that like The Cadillac of Fords? It just seems an odd comparison..

Obviously this building in Cayce at the corner of Frink & Ferguson Streets has been there a long time, and has probably been many things. The only two I can turn up in google however are Frink Street Tavern and Frink Street Pub, and in fact I'm not entirely sure those are two separate businesses instead of a variant name or mis-listing. If the are two separate operations, then Frink Street Tavern came first with Frink Street Pub opening and closing in 2007.

I say that because the myspace page given on the street sign still exists (after correcting the backward-slash vs forward-slash typo), and proudly proclaims an opening date of 25 February 2007 (while still looking for bartenders and "Kareoke" performers on 18 February..), giving this description:

We are a local pub located at 904 frink street cayce south carolina ...We have pool tables , golden tee , silver strike bowling and many other games ...we have the lowest price drinks anywhere , most beer is only a buck most liqour is only 2 bucks .....we do Kareoke ... live music ,juke boxes ,and like to have a good ole time ...We play country music , classic rock, and other good music ,we are open monday thru saturday from 2pm until ...and available for private party rentals on sundays .....Please stop by and enjoy an ice cold beer and get to know us ...you will have a great time !!!!!!!!! call us at 803-791-5875

However, the place is not listed in my Feb07-Feb08 or Feb08-Feb09 phonebooks, so I surmise that it did not make it through the year.

The various real estate listings all make clear that at this point this particular "track" of land is being sold with the building as more of a afterthought than an asset.

UPDATE 6 February 2012: Added Mote's Store to the post title based on the comments (which you should read). Apparently it was a little-bit-of-everything type old-time store.

UPDATE 25 November 2012 -- Looks like somebody has bought the property and is doing some work:

Commenter south mauldin asked a little while ago if this place were closed. At the time I wasn't sure -- I had driven by and the lot was empty, but I didn't have time to stop and check it out. The next time I went by, there was no doubt, with a For Sale sign by the road and a goodbye message on the whiteboard. That message mentions a three year run -- Somehow I thought it had been a good deal longer than that.

When I got out and looked around, I was actually rather impressed by the lot. There are some nice trees, and a stream runs along the front of the property providing a bit of lush greenspace insulating the place from the next lot over. I think the building could definitely use some windows on the front though, as it seems like it would get a bit claustrophobic in there.

While I was googling the place, I ran across this interesting thread on another blog, The Columbia Cheeseburger Crawl on Epicurious Eats. They sample the burgers at a number of Columbia's off-the-beaten-trail hideaways and render a verdict. Even though the crawl was just last year, both End Zone and Palmetto Sandwich Shop are already gone.

(Hat tip to commenter south mauldin)

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Commenter Sarah asked about Holt Drive Grocery a while ago, and this is what I've been able to find out. Commenter Andrew pinpointed the address at 2028 Holt Drive, and this is correct. The lot is off Rosewood at the end of South Waccamaw Avenue where it intersects Holt Drive.

The city directory for 1949 notes that 2028 is "under construction", while the city directory for 1950 just lists the name of "Dowdey, David D." for 2028. In 1951 the notation "gro" is added to the entry indicating a notation by the directory compilers that the location is a grocer's. However, the site is not listed in the business section of the directory as a named business at this point. The same goes for the 1952 directory.

In 1953, the city directory entry for 2028 expands to note "Dowdey Dave Distr Co Wholesale Groceries / Holt Drive Grocery". It also adds an entry for 2028½ (2028 1/2) as "Dowdey, David", so presumably, Mr. Dowdey lived on the premesis at the time.

There is some discrepancy between the Southern Bell phone directory listings for Holt Drive Grocery and the city directory listings. In particular, the last phonebook listing for Holt Drive Grocery is in the December 1964 book while the city directory continues to list it by name longer. I'm afraid I did not make my notes as clear as I should have on this point. In 1966 the city directory lists Holt Drive Grocery but adds the name Nu Blen Coffee Company. I believe 1966 is the last year of listing for Holt Drive Grocery, but the format I used admits the possibility that it continued to co-exist with Nu Blen. At any rate, in 1970, the name of Nu Blen changed to Nu Blen Coffee Roasters which continued for 1971. In 1972, the citry directory simply lists the address as "vacant".

Aside from the address the phonebook has little information as the business apparently never bought a Yellow Pages ad (few grocers did). However, in the November 1954 phonebook, the number for Holt Street Grocery was given as "2-8929". By the December 1961 phonebook, it had changed to "AL 6-9630", and in the last listing in December 1964, it was "256-9630".

Is the building pictured here the Holt Drive Grocery building? I can't say for sure, but I suspect that it is, as I can believe such a building was built in 1949.

I had the opportunity to visit Birmingham Alabama last weekend. The landscape was quite a bit different than I expected. For some reason I had it in my mind that Birmingham was a flat-land area, but actually it is quite hilly with many properties accomodating themselves to very uneven lots. My other impression of the place (which may be just a function of the areas I happened to drive through) is that it has been hit as hard or harder than Columbia by the recession. I could have taken a lot of pictures like these if I had had the time (or the inclination, as after all this isn't "Birmingham Closings").

This particular building caught my eye for some reason. It clearly did not start life as an Asian buffet -- The stone construction has a very 1970s look about it and it appears very Shoney-ish. The realtor's PDF says they are asking $1,100,000 for it. Judging by the immediate surrounding areas, I have to say: "Good luck with that.."

Well, darn -- another "I'll get there someday" restaurant is gone. On the other hand, the menu at the follow-on operation, Polliwogs looks pretty good.

The LoopNet listing for the building says that the owner of Icy's was retiring rather than business being bad at this location. It also says the building was built in 1984, which is about what I remember. I recall a promising looking restaurant starting there (not Icy's, which this site claims dates to 2004) just about the time I left town to live in Fayetteville. As for Icy's itself, it seems to me it may have started at the much-restauranted sports bar outparcel at Columbia Mall and then migrated down Two Notch, but I'm not sure of that.

UPDATE 12 June 2011 -- Here's the original Columbia Mall location for Icy's:

Also added the name Josh's to the post title based on the comments.

Commenter Dennis reported this demolition on Rosewood at South Prospect. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the original building, a sharply peaked older brick house, but there is still one in Google Streetview, which you will be able to see below if embedding works correctly and you have flash turned on (I ususally don't):

View Larger Map

Google also thinks that this is the web site for the Athena Technologies with an office in the razed building. It's certainly an Athena Technologies, a "geological consulting" firm that does "vibracore sediment sampling", and as the listed address is in South Carolina, I'm inclined to think it is the right one.

(Hat tip to commenter Dennis)

Well, this is already getting talked on on Have Your Say, so I may as well go ahead and post early today..

I realize this will get pushback from a lot of folks (sorry Jonathan!), but I never really found the food at Yo Burrito to be as good as the chain burrito stores. In particular I thought it didn't come close to my favorite, Moe's. The burritos always seemed on the dry side to me (particularly the rice), and while they had a lot of different types of salsa, they managed to do that without hitting on one I really liked (and they served it in ridiculously small cups). What I did like about the place was that the service was always friendly, and that they had a nice semi-patio area where you could sit and watch the passers by on Devine Street while sometimes a bird would hop in through the window -- I would do that for Sunday lunch from time to time. That may be possible again later -- note the "Thanks for 9 Years" door sign that says a new restaurant is coming this fall.

I'm pretty sure Yo Burrito started in Charleston, and that's where I first encountered them, at their original location near the College of Charleston Campus. There were famously evicted from there when the college took over the building, but were able to relocate in the same area. As far as I know they are still open in Charleston, but I have not checked..

Interestingly, I "learned" of this closing though my daily perusal of Google Analytics -- software that tells me what keywords people are searching for when they come to the site from search engines. Yesterday I got several hits on variations of "Yo Burrito closed", then commenter south mauldin confirmed it earlier today.

(Hat tip to commenter south mauldin).

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