Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As noted by commenter Heath, Nooch & Lalo Mix Mex Food & Drink in the Flight Deck complex in Lexington has closed. ColaDaily has the story and says:

The announcement via social media names "devastating family issues" as a factor as to why the closure was the best decision. Co-owners and partners Jose "Lalo" Parra and Nicholas "Nooch" Kole will be moving to Mexico to start a new chapter, according to the announcement[.]

This place was the follow-on operation to Arkos and opened in November 2019, closed earlier in 2020 and announced the permanent closing in mid-November 2020.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I never ate at Saffron, but their mix of cuisines (Indian, Chinese & Mexican) intrigued me. I figure there was a family story in there somewhere. Yelp reviews indicate that the place changed hands last year, and you can see on the marquee sign, that the Mexican aspect has been elided.

Now the place has closed, and the follow-on will be a (fully) Mexican restaurant: La Cienega.

Casa Linda in Forest Acres is one of my go-to places, but I don't think I've ever eaten at any of the other locations. I have eaten in this *building*, back when it was a D's Wings. Casa Linda set up shop there probably around 2013, and lasted until the end of 2019.

Actually commenter Heath mentions that this closing was more like a tidy ownership change, with El Patron quickly setting up there after year's end.

I'll note that the plaza marquee still touts the comics shop that closed in 2017.

I've been in this building at least once, back when it was Doc's Gumbo Grille, but as I view Sushi as Superman views Kryptonite, it never even occurred to me to visit TakoSushi. I see from the various writeups on the closing that they had a Southwest component, which I might have guessed from the Tako, except that sounds very like a Japanese word when spelled that way. While I have not been inside, I have admired the very visible and shiny ventilator for years. I also notice that the Yin/Yang mural is a Blue Sky creation.

According to the Takosushi website and statements to the press, the restaurant considered the building to be unsafe. The State says the owner disputes that, and says that any interior damage would be the tenant's responsibility to fix. Here are two more takes from ColaDaily and WLTX

In a sign of the times, I could not get close enough to the front door to get a good picture of the posted notice (though you can probably read it on the click-through) because there is already someone sleeping in the doorway.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

UPDATE 12 November 2020 -- Now Crabby's Cajun:

I was not aware of Tin Lizzy's, else I might have gone sometime. The menu looks decent.

When I first heard that it had closed, and was at 700 Gervais Street, I went to the building you see in the first shot, which is not, in fact, the location. Apparently 700 Gervais encompasses the whole arc of buildings around the parking lot there. WLTX has a (very) little more.

Apparently, the only non-Georgia locations of Tin Lizzy's left are in Greenville and Tallahassee.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

UPDATE 11 May 2021 -- It's now Crafty Crab (although nobody has changed the streetside marquee yet):

Tijuana Flats closed their Forest Acres store back in March. Apparently the Greenville stores closed in March as well. This store opened after the Forest Acres one, and soldiered on for a few months longer, but with this closing, it appears the chain has totally left the state, which is a shame as I rather liked it (though their salsa policy was rather odd).

These pictures were taken shortly after the closing date, and the store was still being stripped.

(Hat tip to commenter TahoeChic)

UPDATE 22 March 2022 -- Now Shomars Southern + Fresh + Greek:

I was downtown today, and decided I would have lunch at Barberitos. I had forgotten about feeding the meters, but scrounged up enough coins to last me until I got some change from my meal and walked around the corner, to find the place is now a Jersey Mike's (somewhat visible in the first shot).

I had done a closing for the Lexington location, and I should have checked on this one earlier. In retrospect it makes sense it would close as well, since they were apparently under the same ownership (both electing to offer ground turkey rather than the ground beef of other Barberitos locations).

The last Yelp review is 1 November 2017 and mentions that the place was already closed, so I'm guessing it did close the same time as Lexington.

It's too bad, I consider Barberitos a step above Chipolte & Qdoba, though below a well-run Moe's.

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:

Burro Loco is a restaurant that has always interested me, because it seemed like it should be good, but never was. I have long had this place on an informal timeline where I would stop by about every five years to see if it was there yet, and it was due probably this year, but now it looks as though I will not get the opportunity.

The closing message on the restaurant site is pretty bland and noncommital (though it is nice that the staff were relocated). The Sun News essentially printed the same press release with no further information.

I find several things a bit curious however. First, there is no signage at the restaurant itself. Not your typical Closed for Renovations much less a more informative See us this fall! or whatever. Second, there is no indication at all that any work whatsoever has taken place here, despite four months having passed, and third, the door marquee indicates they were open until 10pm 7 days, not the 11pm weekend closing I would expect for a bar based hot-spot. I'm moved to suspect that the chain acted to stop the bleeding, but doesn't yet really have an idea what to do with the place. We'll see, and I hope I'm wrong as I would like to see this place finally get good.

UPDATE 7 December 2018: The Sun News reports the building is for sale.

My memory is a big vague, but I believe this restaurant (in the former Redbone Alley/Corky's building) actually started out as a San Jose, but that was causing some heartburn at the old Forest Drive San Jose which is now Pasta Fresca, so it was reflagged as Pancho's while still being in the San Jose family.

For whatever reason, that was undone on 7 March, and it is now officially a San Jose again (though some of the signs have yet to be changed).