Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

In my childhood, this little strip in front of Richland Mall was the first (or first I knew of) location for Ambassador Animal Hospital, which later moved down Forest Drive east of Trenholm. Our dog always seemed to know when the car was headed in that direction. She would always act a bit off there, and I vividly recall the one and only time that she snatched a fly from the air and ate it was in the Ambassador lobby.

Since then the strip has been through a major overhaul, possibly at the same time the old Richland Mall went to the enclosed "Fashion" incarnation though I could be wrong about that.

I know that Wild Birds Unlimited was there for quite a while, but I never had the need to go in. I noticed the other day that the building was vacant, and a google search reveals that WBU has moved to the Piggly Wiggly plaza by Cardinal Newman.

UPDATE 6 March 2010 -- Here's the new location in Forest Park:

UPDATE 8 June 2010 -- Looks like some work is being done on the old location:

UPDATE 22 June 2022: Adding map icon and updating tags. Also note that they have moved from Forest Park as well.

I noticed on Google Analytics a lot of traffic coming in from a link on your site.

Welcome!

Some of the places you mention do have entries here including:

The Big Bird

The Basil Pot

Peaches Records

The Sub Cabin

Take a look at the Alphabetical Closings page for more of your favorites!

Ted

I first wrote about this hard-luck building on Saint Andrews Road near the I-26 interchange when it had stopped being a D's Wings. (It had been a number of other things even before that). The second time I wrote about it was when it had just stopped being Baja's Southwestern Grill.

This time, it has just stopped being Delmonico Diner, something it had been in preparation to start being for quite a while. I drove over a few weeks ago to see the state of the place, and I believe the roadside sign said "open", but they were turning away customers who actually parked and tried to go in. According to commenter Alicia, when the place did open for real, they only made it for a total of three days before closing the doors. I'm sure there's a sad story there, and I'm sorry to see that.

The building is up for sale again, and I suppose it is well fitted as a restaurant, but I have to say that if I were looking to start an eatery somewhere, I think I would have to consider this spot's track record and look elsewhere.

(Hat tip to commenter Alicia)

Here's another victim of the decline of downtown retail, a store that with the front sign, awnings and recessed entrance almost perfectly typifies those bygone days..

I'm not much of a clothes shopper as I've noted quite a number of times here, and I'm even less of a shoe shopper. Growing up, we used to do most of our shoe shopping at Jack's on Sunnyside or Poll Parrot at Trenholm Plaza (I think I still have some premiums from that store..). Once I grew up and noticed that my feet were no longer changing size, I discovered that if I picked a shoe that was made year after year, I could just order a pair sight unseen and never have to "shop" for shoes, and that's pretty much what I've done with size 10M Sebago Docksides.

I'm not sure exactly when this store closed, but given the "2007" support sticker on the door, I'm guessing 2008.

UPDATE 9 Feb 2010: Added a picture I missed the first time.

Assuming that things are working correctly, you most probably will have noticed a Google AdSense ad box between the list of pages and the first post on the page.

I actually signed up for AdSense in the middle of last year, but when I changed the blog to the current theme, which I like quite a bit, there was really no place to put ads that wouldn't mess of the flow of things since the theme has only one sidebar. I consider the recent comments very important, so I didn't want to push them down, and there's not really any point putting an adbox halfway down the page. I finally took the time to go through the tutorial and figure out that I could probably put in a horizontal adbox near the top by hacking it into the theme's header HTML code.

That's how. Now why? This is a hobby blog pure and simple and that's not changing. At the same time, if I can make a little money with it, well, I am certainly not averse to that. Frankly, I have my doubts. By its nature Columbia Closings is a very local blog for a medium sized city, and simply does not have the traffic stats that something with a wider geographical appeal might have. My other venture into commercialism, the Columbia Closings Cafe Press store has so far cleared me a grand total of $10.00 (and cost, if I recall correctly, $60 to set up, so I'm still $50 under water on that -- not that I mind as it was fun to put the calendars and other products together).

So, we'll see what happens. If the ads bring in a miniscule amount, I may drop them, otherwise not. At any rate if you surf without javascript turned on, or if you Firefox users load the adblock plugin, you should be able to avoid seeing them.

Edna's, of course is a Columbia institution that has been on Broad River Road since forever, but at one time there were at least two other connected restaurants. One was off of Forest Drive behind the Tasty Bake Shop and had indoor seating with unique folk-art on the walls.

The other, listed in the above ad from the 1970 Southern Bell Yellow Pages, was at the site of what is now Anthony's Dairy Bar, which itself has been there a good while. (And Columbia seems to have had a lot of "dairy bars", a name I don't recall seeing in any other city).

To the best of my memory, we never stopped at Two Notch Drive In. In fact, when we started going to restaurants almost everything had gone to indoor seating with the exceptions of the original Columbia McDonald's on Garners Ferry Road, and Bell's Drive In on Forest Drive or that's how it seemed to me anyway.

When Rich's came to Columbia with the opening of Columbia Mall it was kind of a big deal. Up until that point, Rich's was an Atlanta name and had the kind of cachet that exotic brands tend to accumulate. I was given to understand that at one point special shopping busses were charterted to run from SC to Atlanta mostly just to shop at Rich's.

Even The State got into the act, running several puff pieces on the store. I can recall one in particular which made the claim that the store was so famous for its customer service and ease of return that a woman once "returned" her husband to Rich's which took him "despite having no record of the sale".

Given that I was almost completely indifferent to style, I was never overwhelmed by the idea (or actuality) of having a Rich's in town, but I liked the odd "pipey" outside architecture of the store, and the quirky way it had an almost patio on the first floor and an interesting elevator which boarded there.

Rich's wasn't all about fashion. It opened during the tail end of the "a department store should have everything" era and so had a full selection of electronics and cookware like a Sears.

It also had a book department at the bottom of the escalator, and that was one of my regular spots to hit when visiting the mall. It tended to best-sellers and remainders so you never knew quite what you would find there. I know I got two volumes of Richard Burton's unexpurgated translation of The Arabian Nights there which I still have, though I never saw the other 15 or so.

At some point Rich's ran into trouble. Wikipedia suggests it started with the death of Richard Rich in 1975. I suspect over expansion and Richway may have contributed. Whatever the case, the chain was sold to Federated which also owned the Macy's name, and the Rich's brand was retired on 6 March 2005.

The old Columbia Mall Rich's store continues to operate as Macy's to this day, and if you consider things just in terms of continuous operation, is one of the last original stores in the mall (along with Sears and Radio Shack) -- there are no books or stereos though.

UPDATE 7 Feb 2010: Somehow I wrote "Frank Rich" above instead of "Richard Rich" (now there's a good comic book name..). I've fixed it (Thanks JT!). Check the comments for more info..

To this point the website for New Orleans Riverfront Restaurant is still up and says the place was founded in 1996, which means it lasted about 13 years. Somehow during all that time, I never managed to make it over there. Of course my memories of New Orleans itself are that I generally ate Italian there aside from the obligatory beignets at Cafe du Monde. Still the Riverwalk at sunset was so picturesque when I went to take these pictures that I wish I had taken a Saturday afternoon lunch or two on the overlook. Offhand, I can't think of a restaurant in Columbia with a better view. (Though you could argue for The Top Of Carolina, I suppose.)

(Hat tip to commenter Steve.)

I only ate at Duke Sandwich Company, on Forest Drive between Lizard's Thicket and Zesto, once. Frankly, I didn't think it was very good. This was due to several factors. First of all, I have certain expectations from anything calling itself a "sandwich company" and those weren't fufilled. I went in thinking I would probably get some sort of chese sub, maybe with some bacon or salami, and I found the menu almost entirely made up of "spread" type sandwiches that I had no desire to eat. I suppose the name should have tipped me off, but the only "Duke" product I know of was mayonaise, which I figured was ok for a "name" draw, but was not going to figure in the majority of sandwiches. Anyway, the fact was the menu was not at all to my taste, and I ended up with a grilled-chese sandwich which was pretty much processed-american-cheese-food between two slices of Sunbeam.

Second, I drink a lot of tea, and the store setup was the worst sort for that. "Normally" you either have table service and the waitress keeps you topped off, or you have an ice dispenser and tea urns on the restaurant floor so customers can self-top. The day I was there, at least, they had no urns, one *pitcher* of tea on the restaurant floor and no ice machines. That meant that every time I wanted an unsweet refill or ice, I had to go to the counter, which was very annoying. Also, if I recall correctly, my table turned out to be a "wobbler" that sloshed my drink a couple of times before I adjusted.

Anyway, that's a "Ted" centric apprasial (which is all I have..), if you liked deviled-egg sandwiches, perhaps this was your favorite place. In the event, I never went back. I hadn't known the place was closed until AJ mentioned it in "Have Your Say". I don't think it was open more than a year or two.

It looks like the next tenant for the building is already lined up, "Yummy Good -- Fresh Food With A Hip Attitude". I wish them well, as the building has been somewhat ill-starred since it was a Sub Station II and there was a murder there.

UPDATE 4 Feb 2010: Well, looks like Yummy Good won't be moving in, but you can still lease the building.

(Hat tip to commenter AJ)

UPDATE 7 March 2011 -- Look's like it will be Tokyo Grill:
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UPDATE 3 September 2011 -- Tokyo Grill is open:

UPDATE 32 March 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Now that Gold's Gym has moved out of the old Columbia Athletic Club building, I've taken the opportunity to update that post with lots of new pictures, so if you're interested, follow the link (and leave any comments there as well).