Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Driving down Sunset to North Main the other day, I noticed that King's Chef Chinese Restaurant is closed -- closed and fenced off, to be exact. I'm not entirely sure when this happened, but I drove by a number of times in December and didn't notice anything wrong, so I'm guessing January.

Just from looking at the building, it was evident that it had been a chain fast-food place of some sort before King's Chef moved in, and a glance at my 1997 phonebook confirms that the original tenant was McDonald's. I don't recall when that closed (and don't have the directories at home to research it), but I think King's Chef has been there a good while, so I would guess early 2000s.

King's Chef is not the only re-purposed fast food in the area. Almost directly across the street is a Long John Silver's which has been turned into a TitleMax. (And of course, the Family Dollar next to King's Chef is a re-purposed Eckerd Drugs.)

UPDATE 6 February 2012: Commenter Thomas notes that there was a fire here and that they are rehabilitating the building, so I have appended "temporary" to the post title.

UPDATE 18 September 2012 -- It's open again (and has been for a while):

Though I wouldn't mind if they used that money to pay me more interest instead..

This building was built as a Taco Cid and I ate there from time to time in the 1980s. I believe that Bright Animal Clinic was the first, and so far only, operation to use the building since Taco Cid left.

The clinic's closing sign mentions that they were established in 1971, so a) This is obviously not their first location and b) That's a 40 year run, and sounds like a well deserved retirement.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the building. There still have been no takers for the nearby Olive Garden and Red Lobster buildings, but the nearby laundry does OK, and there should be a fair number of ofice workers in the area after the county finishes the takeover of Decker Mall.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 18 April 2013 -- It's to be an Atlantic Seafood:

UPDATE 25 April 2013 -- The building sign is up:

UPDATE 17 February 2014 -- Atlantic Seafood is finally open:

Well, this is an interesting closing, more for the implications than anything else. Starbucks is not in the business of closing stores that make money, and this is a foot-traffic location, so I would say that this section of Sandhill, at least, does not get as much foot traffic as expected, and that, in addition, they decided it wasn't worth it to move to one of the empty spots on the main drag either.

As for the store itself, I think I stopped there once or twice, and it was fine: A typical Starbucks with no apparent problems.

UPDATE 15 February 2012: Added a night-time picture.

(Hat tip to commenter Elizabeth)

UPDATE 10 April 2013 -- It's now a cupcake bakery:

UPDATE 30 November 2021: Adjusting street address, updating tags, adding map icon.

The first closing I did for this building was when it was Mary Ella's -- Well, actually most of that closing came from commenter Dennis, as does the first picture above.

Cafe Millwood opened in the space shortly after Mary Ella's departed and was having a grand opening by February 2010. Curiously, the pictures on their still extant web site are all dated 2007, which is not possible, so apparently the camera clock/calendar was not set correctly. Along with the pictures, the site has copies of the menus and some background on the cafe.

It's pretty easy to approximately date the closing by looking at the newspapers in the inside racks. In particular, the copy of the Columbia Star with the story about the beauty queen who is promoting Harvest Hope food bank ran on 28 October 2011, and was apparently the last issue to be racked. There is no sign or indication on the door or elsewhere giving a formal closing notice, but the phone is disconnected, so I'm fairly sure this is permanent.

UPDATE 15 February 2012 -- Apparently it's to be Old Shandon Pub & Pizza and will have a beer or liquor license.

(Hat tip to commenter Mary Douglass)

UPDATE 21 May 2012 -- Apparently the Old Shandon Pub & Pizza is not going to come to fruition. There were no signs of interior work for a long time, then a "For Rent" sign went back up. The sign is still there, though it seems to have fallen down:

I noticed this little building on the south side of Devine while I was taking pictures of Hardcore Tennis. Wedding invitations and stationery are things I have 1) never needed or 2) seldom needed, but apparently Jot Stationery Design Studio specializes in both.

With the New Year, they have moved to 3140 Carlisle Street, as described in this post from their blog. Apparently, before Jot moved in, this location was an optician, Devine Eyes, and an arts & crafts store, In The Loop.

UPDATE 1 February 2012: Added Manya, a women's clothing store, to the post title based on the comments and this.

When I lived in Fayetteville, there was a time when I ate lunch at Ryan's almost every day. I thought they had a very good salad bar with a number of unusual items, like peanuts (which are actually better on a salad than sunflower seeds in my opinion). They also had a cheese wheel of real cheddar, which when slipped into the excellent hot yeast rolls made a nice impromptu grilled cheese sandwich. The only minus factor was that the lettuce was shredded, sub style, rather than chopped into larger pieces as is usual.

At some point our lunch preferences shifted for one reason or another, and it was years until I tried Ryan's again. This time it was the one in Georgetown, on the section of 707 near the Wal-Mart, and I was not impressed. I don't remember if this was the case in Fayetteville, but by this point I definitely preferred booth seating, and there was none. The chairs were rather uncomfortable as well. The cheese wheel was gone, the peanuts were gone, and the yeast rolls didn't seem as good. I figured some of it might be that particular store, so several years after that, when I was on Two Notch near my lunch time, I dropped in at the store there, and found it to be about the same.

In later reading, I learned that while the chain was originally started by an Upstate company, it was eventually sold to a national chain running several different buffet operations, and I suspect this is when the place's character changed.

That firm, Buffets Restaurants Holdings Inc. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy (for the second time..) on 18 January 2012. As part of that, they closed or planned to close 81 or their 494 stores (which include Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, Fire Mountain, and Tahoe Joe's Famous Steakhouse in addition to Ryan's).

The Georgetown store is one of the ones that shut as well, but it appears that the Two Notch location will stay open as the firm works on recovery.

Props to the manager for writing a personal note.

What's next for this site? Experience would suggest an Asian buffet or a Mexican restaurant (and more power to them if that happens..)

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Bill)

UPDATE 22 April 2020 -- Commenter Mr. Bill sent in some pictures of the demolition of this building, which I manged to lose for a while. Here they are:

You know, I don't think I've ever seen a Waffle House go under -- until now.

I actually had this Waffle House in my sights for several years. Due to the way it was situated, I thought it would make a good subject for a Nighthawks type picture. In the event, I never got around to it. (For one thing, the best place to set up would be the gas station across the street, which is also 24 hours, and probably would have gotten me some pointed looks at best).

I suppose this does help with directions though:

"Take the only Interstate exit without a Waffle House.."

UPDATE 2 February 2012 -- some daylight pix:

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- It would appear someone has a grudge against those of the distaff persuasion:

UPDATE 8 November 2016 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew, this is now a Molly Maid facility:

UPDATE 5 January 2022: Adding map icon and updating tags.

(The pictures aren't that great -- I was shooting ISO 3200, when I could have gotten by with 1600 or even 800).

The State says that this Abercrombie & Fitch in Columbiana Mall shuttered on 14 January 2012 as part of a bad-economy driven process that has already closed the King Street store in Charleston, and will close the Greenville store this weekend (28 January 2012). [The Myrtle Beach store in Coastal Grand Mall will remain open for now].

A&F is not a store I've ever entered, though I was pretty sure they sell clothes, and a glance at their web site confirms that. The only association I have with the name is an old joke/shaggy-dog-story that I heard parts of in the 70s that ended with

You can call me X, you can call me Y, but you doesn't has to call me Abercrombie!

Apparently the mall will make good this loss when a store called Love Culture opens this summer. This is another clothing store, but apparently for women only. The current tagline on their site

On the hunt for cute clothes!

and the two somewhat campy, retro graphics suggest a fairly young demo.

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