Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I got a little behind the times here, missing two in a row.

The Southern Belly opened a location in this spot around 2018 after Spork closed. They lasted apparently until 2022.

After that, Krab Kingz opened on 21 April 2022, as detailed in this State story. They also folded in somehow the Hook Fish & Chicken operation from River Drive after they closed.

Krab Kingz seems to have folded sometime in 2024, with the last archived web page I can find from October 2023. I believe they were part of a national chain which still exists.

Now the place is Best Wings Of Columbia.

I'll confess that I never picked up on the fact this was an Asian restaurant until I looked at the menu this evening. From the name, I expected burgers, or maybe barbecue.

This building has been a number of different eateries including Moe's Grapevine, Rooftop Pizza Pub & Eric's San Jose.

ALley Street opened here after Eric's around August of 2024, so they didn't make it a full year. I think the building itself is a bit of a challenge. Apart from not knowing what kind of place it was, you might look at it and wonder how you were going to get grandma up the steps and inside. I'm pretty sure there is an accessible back door, but that's not readily apparent from Rosewood.

The building is currently for rent, so we'll have to see if another restaurant is in its future.

The State has the story, such as it is, here

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

I think Old Chicago has a decent pizza, and here in Columbia it has the advantage of being a decent place regularly open late. About the only negative thing I have to say is that they can't settle on a garlic bread appetizer. They have gone through three or four iterations in the last several years. Anyway, this Murrells Inlet location was not open late as consistently as the Vista one, as is typical for Grand Strand restaurants in the off seaosns, but nonetheless I ate there a good number of times over the last several years.

It was a new store, replacing another bar whose name escapes me, and which was completely razed to put up this building, but in the end it didn't last that long. I noticed in December driving by that it did not appear to be open when I would expect it to be, and finally a stop verified that it was gone.

The Sun News had the story here, saying that 30 November was the last night.

The follow-on is now open -- Bohemian Bull Tavern and Beer Garden:

This storefront at 10008 Two Notch has been a number of different restaurants over the past few years. The Baked Potato Factory took over from Good Greens sometime between March 2022 & March 2023.

It's not quite clear when this place closed. Looking at the Google reviews, they had been having trouble meeting their stated hours for a while, but the last reviews are tagged "three months ago", so I am going with January 2025. While I enjoy a baked potato every now and then, I never got around to trying them out, though the reviews also suggest the potatoes were pretty good and amply sized.

I remember this Krispy Kreme going back to high school days in the late 1970s. Lately it has seemed not to be open as late as the one near the former Myrtle Square Mall or the one in North Myrtle Beach, and I hadn't been in for a while. It was still a bit of a disappointment to see it closed and all papered over last December.

The Sun News says it actually closed in October. The company didn't provide them a reason, but it's not too far from other location I mentioned, so I suspect given traffic and staffing, it probably was just not worth it to them to keep it open.

Tropical Grille followed Smashburger into this endcap when the burger chain closed here in 2019. I wasn't sure exactly what the theme of Tropical Grille was, but they characterize themselves with:

Savor the rich, authentic flavors of Cuban and Latin-inspired cuisine at Tropical Grille.

which sound pretty good (if a bit chicken-y for me).

Looking at their website, it's an upstate South Carolina chain with 9 other locations, this one having been the only one here in the Midlands after the Main Street location closed in 2012.
.

I like the mascot!

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

I know I ate in this place once in 2024. I thought it was fine, nothing special, but certainly not bad. Given that Google reviews say it has been closed for around 7 months, I guess that must have been in the Spring or Summer of last year.

I'm a little fuzzy on the history of this place. I know it was a D's Wings, a Casa Linda and an El Patron before this, but I think I may have missed another Mexican restaurant somewhere in the rotation.

I do find the name a bit interesting as I associate Garibaldi with the foundation of modern Italy, not Mexico.

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To follow up on the Pelican SnoBalls post from 11 February: That store apparently started here, and moved up the street a few years later.

This Free Times article says it opened on 23 June of 2017, and looking at StreetView, it appears it probably moved after the 2021 snow cone season.

Here is the LoopNet information for the building.

I like snowcones, but not enough to pay ice cream prices for them, so I have never sampled one of the several local Pelican's locations. Technically this store has been closed since the season ended, but the fact that it would not re-open was announced on 17 January. No specific reason was given in that story or this one, but I presume the volume was just not there.

I believe this is the second Main Street location for the franchaise with the former one being further down towards Eau Claire.

The chain maintains a number of other locations in the Midlands, so when things warm back up, you will be able to get your fix.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)