Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I have got to say that their marquee mascot looks the least like a Chinese chef of any illustration I've seen. (Not that there's anything wrong with a European in a floppy hat dilligently applying himself and learning Chinese cooking..)

UPDATE 6 October 2021: Adding "North" to "Woodrow Street" in the title and tags. Adding map icon.

I had actually taken some pictures of this place last September, when I first got a report that it was closed. That proved to be short lived, and by the time I got over there, it was open again as seen in the first three pictures.

This month it re-closed, this time apparently for good as there is a real-estate sign in the window, and the menus have been taken down (although the nice neon sign is still there..)

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 17 January 2014 -- Now it's Olive Grill:

This Chinese buffet next to Big Lots on Two Notch had been a fixture for many years, and I expected that it would be for many more. I can't think of anything that changed in the area recently, but in the event, apparently not.

Taste of China Hut had two Columbia locations after the one on Rosewood closed, this one at Main & Confederate, and another at 2233 Decker Boulevard. As far as I am aware, the Decker location is still open, but I'll try to remember to check it out.

I'm not a big fan of Chinese food and had never really noticed this building (which was clearly some other fast food franchaise in the beginning), but I have to say I really like the laughing Buddha.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Over the last year or so, there's been some question whether Ya Food in the Walmart plaza on Two Notch was trying to change it's name, or emphasize the hibichi identity, but a few weeks ago, a commenter (whose comment and name I have unfortunately misplaced) pointed out that it was now entirely closed, and indeed that seems to be the case.

Good Day Chinese Restaurant in North Columbia Square on Fairfield Road reminds me a bit of the old Chung King restaurant in Intersection Center, at least as far as having painstaking, attractive, woodwork nailed to the bricks.

The building itself obviously predates Good Day and it's on the tip of my tongue what it must have been originally, but for some reason I'm drawing a blank.

UPDATE 30 September 2012 -- Tender as Quail! Tasty as Pheasant!

Commenters have identified the original tenant of this building as Golden Skillet and pictures like this one confirm that. I don't know when that closed, but it was before the February 1997 phonebook, and Wikipedia suggests the chain went into decline after 1981.

It seems unlikely that this building, which is partly a car wash and partly a barber shop, at 5100 Two Notch road is the one which originally housed China Royal Restaurant, especially as the 1976 yellow pages ad says that they could seat 250 people. It is however at the same address.

It's interesting that this stretch of Two Notch used to have a number of restaurants, including aside from this one The Ranch and Huddle House

UPDATE 26 March 2012 -- Interesting. Commenter Mike says that in fact China Royal was in the same building that also housed The Ranch and is now This Is It! Video on one side and a nightclub on the other:

The address of that building is now 5024 Two Notch Road, and the current asignee of the 5100 address (above) seems to make sense as it comes right as a new block starts..

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):

I've written about this building before in a closing for D'Lites / Miami Sub Grill. Splendid China Buffet has occupied the space since then, and seems to do a good business. The door sign is a little vague about what is going on. Certainly the construction is happening (and seems quite thorough..), and I don't doubt that something with the same ownership will open here again, but it's not clear it will still be Splendid China -- It looks more like a total refit.

BTW, does anyone have the definitive name for the sidestreet between Splendid China and Lowes? I've see that I've used both "Firelane Road" and "Fire Lane Drive" in the past. Google Maps seems to think "Fire Lane Road", Mapquest goes with "Firelane Road", and I'm sure I got the "Fire Lane Drive" from some source..

UPDATE 17 October 2011 -- Wow! There's *remodeling* and then there's this:

(also added a night picture of the place still operating at top)

UPDATE 16 July 2012 -- It pains my sense of order to stick this update in the middle of the post, and above the 1 February 2012 update, but I have run across these pictures on my drive that predate the pictures in that update. (They are from 27 December 2011):

UPDATE 1 February 2012: Took the temporary? notation off the post title. At this point it is clear that Splendid China is not coming back, but that instead the place will now be known as Jasmine Buffett as these two poorly composed drive-by shots show. Presumably with that name it will still be an Asian buffet:

UPDATE 16 April 2012 -- Jasmine looks pretty close to completion:

UPDATE 15 May 2012 -- Jasmine Buffet is up and running:

It seems to me that there used to be a number of "day old" bakery thrift stores around town, but I can't recall seeing any recently. This one on Parklane not from from the old Sounds Familiar location was completely unknown to me. It appears from the signage and construction permit that it will reopen as Panda Chinese Restaurant, which will make three (that I know of) in the general area.

(Hat tip to commenter Miz T)