Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Adriana's was a landmark Five Points coffee house that had apparently been open for 25 years. Eva in the Free Times has the story of how the end came, and it seems to have been a number of factors.

I believe that I only stopped in at Adriana's once, and got an initial "not for me" impression that I never spent enough time in Five Points to correct. As I recall, it was a hot summer day, and I was walking around the area as I do maybe once or twice a year (actually more than that now that I'm taking pictures for the blog..) and I stopped in for an iced cappuccino, which was served to me sweetened. My theory is that you should never put sugar in someone's coffee unless they ask for it (or unless you're ordering some frou-frou drink which explicitly lists it).

Be that as it may, they survived the coming of Starbucks just around the corner for a number of years, which is no mean feat. The storefront is currently empty, or was when I took these pictures a few weeks ago and I have not heard of anything new going into the space.

Well, I have to admit this is a pretty non-descript former gas station, but I'm a little curious as to what it was. The place is on the south side of Augusta Road (US 1) in West Columbia just before it joins up with Jarvis Klapman Boulevard. It appeared to me that the location would be something of a pain to get in and out of, so that may have had something to do with the place being empty. I know that this is around 2100 Augusta Road, and Google Streetview suggests it's about 2176 (though it should be an odd street number, I think) but I'm unable to google up any information on street numbers in that range..

UPDATE 7 December 2009: Thanks to commenter Badger, I've got the street address (2123) and a pointer to a business. That and google let me change the post title from "Gas Station" to the list currently at top now.

"Rawls Auto Auction Inc"? Hmm.. "You'll never find.... Another car like mine.."

UPDATE 15 Jan 2011 -- It's now Beer & Tobacco Outlet:

I had just turned out of Grecian Gardens on the adjacent block when I remembered about Gooney Birds and decided to get a few pictures. Of course that was after supper -- perhaps I'll add a day shot the next time I'm in the area and think about it.

I only ate at Gooney Birds once. I had a burger, and it was perfectly acceptable, but not something so incredibly good that I would pass dozens of other burger places to get over there. I don't recall much about the decor now, but at this remove, I'm wondering if the eponymous 'Gooney Birds' could have been The Gamecocks -- most years it seems as though it would fit well enough.

As do many buildings fitted out as restaurants, Gooney Birds has found new life as a Chinese Restaurant. (The other possibility would be a Lizards Thicket, but there was already one of those in the same parking lot :-)

UPDATE 3 Nov 2010 -- Here's a daylight picture, finally:

I first wrote about this former steakhouse when Crazy Buffett folded, but it now appears that the second Chinese buffet operation in the building is history as well. I'm not sure why -- it seems like a decent location with good visibility and plenty of traffic passing by and I can't think of any other Chinese buffets in the area. There's the second Eggroll Station on Sunset, but that's not a buffet.

Notice how the left side of the building still proclaims it to be a "restaurante", a bit of signage remaining from the Mexican incarnation of the place..

UPDATE 16 May 2013 -- As mentioned by commenter Andrew, this place is being knocked down:

OK, as is often the case, my memory is a bit hazy on this, but I think I recall this whole plaza as being the original site for the Cayce K-Mart, with this outbuilding, now mostly an auto-parts operation, some sort of grocery store. Anyway, it still seems to have that sort of "grocery" look in the facade.

The area in general (around the start of Airport Boulevard and Piggy Park) doesn't seem to have done well in recent years. The Magic Carpet Slide went under, Shoney's moved, the A&P closed, and the whole little plaza across the Charleston Highway from this strip has been in decline for years.

On the other hand, the last Taco Cid is still hanging in there..

I have noticed this building on Mobile Avenue (off of Airport Boulevard fairly near the airport) a number of times over the years, though I don't believe it has always had the castle-like facade.

I used to fly out of the airport fairly often (though luckily I haven't had to fly for a few years now), and it seemed to me that for a while it was something different every time I drove past. I think in the 90s it was a strip club that morphed into a night club or vice versa, and a few more things before it became The Flight Line and then Uncle Doctors.

Google gave me a pointer to the old Uncle Doctors web site, and I was able to find some zombie versions in www.archive.org from whence the logos. Apparently Uncle Doctors was a sister club to Ground Zero in Spartanburg as they shared a site. The current occupant in the building apparently does wedding receptions and catering.

I had never really noticed this office building on Devine street until I was walking around there one day and saw the "For Lease" signs. I normally think of this area of Devine as "eclectic" upscale retail, but I guess there are a number service type businesses as well. The moving firm, Mc Donnell & Associates, appears to be a law firm, and google suggests the building holds title search and investment firms. I think it would be a nice area to work in, at least lunch-wise, though working at home is nicer still..

Here's a rather interesting picture I took the other night. The moon was almost full, and I took the camera out with a tripod to get some moonlight shots. With a long enough exposure, they look very much like daylit shots except for the visible stars and the way electric lights show up.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Posting is going to be light to non-existent going through the Thanksgiving weekend.

Here's a little helpful food hint I picked up a couple of years ago.

Pomegranates are great, but possibly the messiest fruit I've ever dealt with. The juice spurts everywhere and stains, plus it's a pain to get the arils out from the white stuff.

It helps a good bit to fill a big pot of cold water and break open the pomegranate pieces under water. You can then thumb the arils out from the wite stuff, and, the arils will (largely) sink while the white stuff will float and can be skimmed off.

Of course I still have juice stains all over my shirt..

Here's another place I have no memory of. Notice that the 1970 Southern Bell Yellow Pages ad lists the address as "522 12th Avenue". I'm fairly sure that's wrong, since there is no 12th Avenue in West Columbia, but there is a 12th Street. Given that, I found that the storefront is in the same strip building that houses that classic Triangle City landmark, Zesto, and is now a payday loan office. I don't know why I didn't take a horizontal format shot as well as this vertical one to put the place into context better.

The illustration looks makes it look a bit upscale, but the text describing it as a breakfast and lunch buffet place seems more down to Earth. I'm not sure when the place closed. As far as I can remember, Zesto has been there forever, and it would seem odd to have two restaurants backed up together like that, but perhaps they were neighbors for a while.