Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This attractive stone-accented building up the hill from Columbiana Drive on Lake Murray Boulevard has featured here several times. First it was Atlanta Bread, which closed in May 2008, and then re-opened around September 2011, finally closing again in May of 2014. Next it was Urban Cookhouse, which closed in October 2018.

Seafood Connection, which was a second location for a Charlotte restaurant, opened here in August 2019. The State had the story celebrating the "Lowcountry boil", and "secret spice". They also had the story on the closing, putting in in context with a number of seafood openings, but with no details on the reasons.

I don't see any obvious reason why this spot is not a good one for a restaurant, but history seems to suggest it is not. We'll see what goes in next.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Hat)

UPDATE 22 June 2021 -- To become an El Jimador Mexican restaurant:

In the comments of the closing for The Captain's Kitchen on Decker, commenter Paul Armstrong offers the following information about The Captain's Kitchen:

The first Captain’s Kitchen opened in 1964 at 2628 Decker Boulevard advertising as “Columbia’s First Exclusive Seafood Restaurant”. It was owned and operated by Charles V Godwin and J D Hammond. In 1969, Hammond and Godwin formed a national franchise chain and the first franchise was built in Kentucky. In September of 1970, the second Captain’s Kitchen in the Columbia area opened at 2030 Charleston Highway in Cayce. There were also corporate owned Captain’s Kitchen restaurants in Augusta, Charleston, and Greenville. The Cayce location closed in 1975 and, in 1976, Skipjack opened in the same building, which is still standing, but now empty, at 2030 Charleston Highway. The original Captain’s Kitchen closed in 1984 and, in June of 1985, Zorba’s opened their second area restaurant in the old Captain’s Kitchen building on Decker Blvd.

I had forgotten it was a chain, and had another midlands location. Zillow confirms this building was a restaurant, and LoopNet suggests it was sold for taxes in 2012. If so, it does not appear anyone has done anything with it since.

It seems a rather odd location for a restaurant as there is not much in the area to this day.

UPDATE 8 August 2019: Add map icon.

I had noticed this restaurant on US-17 ALT/US-521 heading into Georgetown for years, but never ventured to stop in as I knew nothing about it, and the timing was usually bad. My assumption was that it was a meat-and-three. That appears to be incorrect, as a bit of googling reveals that it was more of a seafood operation (though there was country cooking), and that it may have had its own boat for seafood supplies.

There were no cars the last few times I drove by, and in January of 2019, there was a real estate sign on the place. On my coastal visit over Memorial Day, I noticed that all of the Palmetto Kitchen signage is now down as well. Looking at the place's Facebook page I think that unfortunately the owner passed away and that the place closed not long afterwards.

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Charlie's took over fairly seamlessly from Nick's, and has now in its turn yielded to King's Pizza, though the sign changeover is less than finished.

I'm not sure if this is the same King's Pizza which replaced Chickadees on Marshall Street, but it would be an odd coincidence if not.

(Hat tip to commenter David Edwards)

This building was originally a Bojangles and was next and an Asian barbecue restaurant.

In 2016, Nick's Gyros & Seafood set up shop, and lasted until this year. Or at least I noticed driving by recently that it was now Charlie's Wing's & Seafood and I think I would have noticed that fairly shortly after it happened as I drive that way frequently.

Atlantic Seafood in the old Taco Bell building on Broad River Road has closed shop, and the place is prepping to be Chicki's Wings. The Decker Boulevard location (interestingly, in another former taco restaurant will remain open.

As reported by commenter John R, Harbor Inn in Lexington has been rebranded as Catch.

I was on the wrong side of the street to stop, but I was able to catch a few photos driving by the other day. Judging from the website, this is a reflagging, and the ownership is the same, as the phone number has not changed from that of Harbor Inn.

I believe that the Two Notch Road location of Harbor Inn is unaffected.

(Hat tip to commenter John R)

Joe Loves was the follow-on in this location to The Ship's Pub, which was the follow-on to Sam's Corner for which the building was built.

I noticed Joe Loves around New Years of 2018, and according to The Hilton Head Island Packet, it had opened here on 5 December 2017. What I did not know was that it had actually relocated from Ridgeland, which, if you look at the map, is quite a good distance away.

Given that the real estate sign mentions that the fixtures are all in place, I expect to see another restaurant here before too long.