Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I don't have much to say about this Metro By T-Mobile (formerly Metro PCS) storefront other than once it was here and now it is gone.

You can see the site with branding still up on Google Maps for now.

When I went to take this non-descript picture, I noticed that construction is now ongoing at the old Ruby Tuesday lot and that there is another vacancy in this strip by Bi-Lo, so things are still in flux here.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad Egister)

I'm not really a Domino's fan, but it's acceptable pizza, and when you're in college, that's probably the best you can hope for. This particular location is on the sharply sloped section of Devine that leads down from Main to Assembly, requiring that the lot be terraced. You can see a shot of it in operation, with the Domino's signage at the LoopNet listing.

They moved from this building to the old Sandy's location, after completely redoing the looks of that property. I'm a little curious about all this as Sandy's had apparently sold their store to something called The USC Development Foundation, which did not lead me to expect another retail food operation there.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 25 January 2022 -- Now The Smokeshop Guys:

Many of these pictures were originally part of my Great Flood of 2015 entry Devine / Crowson / Fort Jackson Boulevard. I have decided to break the Auto Money Title Loans building (and later the Subway) out as separate posts to make them easier to find in the future as these two building, along, and even moreso, with the TitleMax building have become somewhat iconic images of the flood. The old posts will remain, and some photos are duplicated.

Anyway, both of these buildings sat on the bank of Gills Creek and in the 1000 Year Flood were filled with water up to the roofs. In addition the creek bank under the backs of the buildings was undermined to the point that with everything, the buildings were total losses.

21 October 2015:

Here we see the buildings a couple of weeks after the flood, when I got back to town from the beach and the roads were open enough for me to go picture taking.

19 June 2018:

Here both buildings have been fenced off, but have not yet been torn down as the FEMA process was still ongoing.

13 March 2019:

Here the Subway has been taken down, and the Title Loans building is next up.

18 March 2019:

Here are some driveby photos of the Title Loans building coming down.

28 March 2019:

Here is the current vacant state of the lot. The Free Times says:

"After extensive information gathering and a lengthy application process to FEMA, the city received Hazard Mitigation Grant Program assistance from FEMA to purchase afflicted homes and the former Title Loan property," a police department release said. "In purchasing the properties with federal grant funds, the city is required to demolish the structures in accordance with FEMA’s conditions, and return the land to green space in perpetuity."

That link also has a good picture of the pre-demolition state of the back side of both buildings.

UPDATE 21 June 2019 -- Here's a picture I took for some reason in 2013 showing the place in operation:

I did not realize until I googled Portfolio that these pictures are of the back side of the gallery: 2007 Devine Street. I'll have to get some pictures of the main entrance next time I am in the area.

I am always nervous to go into commercial art galleries because I know that although I like art a good bit, there is approximately a zero percent chance that I will buy another painting I have no place to hang. I am particularly afraid of being the only potential customer in the store and having to dissapoint the owner. Of course there are a lot of topics like this that I'm neurotic about. So anyway, I never went into Portfolio but The State story on the closing makes it sound quite an interesting place which had been there since 1980. The owner is going on to a well deserved retirement.

(Hat tip to commenter Summer)

UPDATE 6 April 2020 -- Here's one more picture, from 1 February 2015:

In retrospect, perhaps it was a bad idea to name a restaurant something that makes it tempting to write "Goodbye" headlines.

I never had any problem with Ruby Tuesday, but in recent years, it was clearly a place looking for its own identity in a flailing market sector. I used to visit this store weekly, as I liked the salad bar, and it was about the right distance that I could get my old Corolla wagon out on the interstate for a few miles and keep it viable. During that period I think they revamped the salad bar about four times, changes that did not always make it better, at least in my opinion. They also started and stopped serving complementary biscuits during that time as well. (They were OK, some sort of cheese drop biscuit, not as good as a real breakfast biscuit, but acceptable).

I'm not surprised this location closed, as there is another just up Garners Ferry Road, and I suspected when the chain started being in the news that one location or the other would have to go. The State has the story, but not really any more details.

With the recent retail openings in the Cross Hill area and the Old Kmart this is something of an up and coming area now, so perhaps the building will not be vacant for too long.

(Hat tip to Mr. Hat)

UPDATE 3 October 2019 -- New construction is going up on the old Ruby Tuesday lot:

UPDATE 12 May 2020: Update tags.

UPDATE 11 September 2020 -- The new buldings are complete. Kairos is now open and Another Broken Egg Cafe is about to:

Tallulah was the follow-up operation to Dianne's On Devine, which closed in 2013. I'm afraid I never stopped by, and by all appearances, it was probably a bit more tony than the places I frequent anyway. From what I see googling around, it did get pretty good reviews.

Of course, good reviews don't necessarily fill tables, and this Free Times story indicates that may have been a problem.

I do have to admit, I could never see the name without thinking of this Van Morrison song:

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I guess this train-stationesque building just was not meant to house a fast casual Mexican chain. If you will recall, this was the location of Qdoba until May of 2015, meaning that Salsarita's lasted about three years. The State's report is here.

Despite some stumbles locally in recent years, I have always been a Moe's partisan in the burritto wars. I hate the ambience at Chipolte, Qdoba burrittos always fell apart on me, and Barbaritos, at least locally, is Moe's lite, without the availability of ground beef. I had not really had an opinion on Salsarita's, not having been to one until recently. Finally having done that (though not at this location), I was a little weirded out when the staff took over my tray and brought it out to a table which was not the one I had been planning on. I honestly can't recall much about the food itself.

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

UPDATE 12 March 2019 -- Now a TD bank:

Jimmy John's is pretty much my goto sub chain(*). I have walked into Jersey Mike's several times, never seen anything I wanted to eat and walked out, Sub Station II doesn't have unsweet tea, Subway is OK, but the one I had most access to for several years kept the thermostat on sub-zero and I had to stop going. The only issue I have with Jimmy John's is the way they core out the bread for your sandwich. If they are going to do that, you ought to get the bread core too -- you paid for it.

That said, I have never eaten at this one as Forest Drive is closer and has parking. At any rate, as reported by commenter MB, it is now closed. I find it curious how completely it is stripped as they were still doing Facebook postings as late as 19 May.

The only other things I will note about this location is that my cousin worked there at one time, and that it was robbed at gun (or maybe finger) point in 2016.

(*) Here: At the beach, Dagwoods in Surfside is the holy grail.

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

UPDATE 12 March 2019 -- Now a Sub Station II:

UPDATE 28 September 2022: Updating tags.

I think I have a picture of this building standing.. Somewhere. Anyway, apparently the buildings at 2801 & 2835 were originally owned by Continental American which was bought out by Aflac in 2009. At some point after that, Aflac moved their all their operations to either Laurel Street or Huger Street depending on which report you read.

In 2016, the property was sold to Devine Station LLC, apparently for

mixed-use development that includes apartments and retail space

I guess they are now getting started on that.

Devine Foods was unfortunately a place I only got to once or twice. Spanakopita is my go-to Greek dish and as I recall, theirs was quite good. My problem was that they closed quite early both for lunch & dinner making it difficult to fit into my eccentric schedule.

Here is a story from The State on the closing, and an appreciation from The Free Times

UPDATE 8 May 2018 -- This place is being razed to the outer walls: