Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Leash The Kraken!

I thought I had done a closing for The Kraken the first time it closed, a few years ago, but I cannot now find it, so either I'm just wrong, or it got lost in the database crash a while back.

Anyway, I'm afraid I know very little about the place other than it had a cool name and was in a neightboorhood I don't normally associate with restaurants.

Here is a take from The Free Times and one from The State.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

While I was getting the Save A Lot pictures, I noticed that the pizza joint in the same strip has now been (partially?) reflagged as a King's Pizza.

Their (officially claimed) Yelp page gives the name as King's Planet Pizza and has a link to the main King's web site, which curiously does not list the place as a location (though it does still list Marshall Street, which I think has fallen through). Does anyone know if the Columbia Mall location has come to pass?

I was not really aware of Conquest Brewing until commenter Jimmy Freeman linked their Facebook farewell in Have Your Say.

The Free Times has a bit more information such as that the place was "Columbia’s first post-production brewery since prohibition" and that Saturday was their final day.

(Hat tip to commenter Jimmy Freeman)

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.

When I did a closing for the Beltline J. Peters a few weeks ago, I linked to this Greenville News story which led me to believe that the J. Peters locations on the coast would continue unchanged.

This turns out not to be the case as the Litchfield Beach location closed, apparently a between one and two weeks ago. I can see why this location might have been on the block as it is not visible from US-17, and there is a Pawleys Island location directly fronting on US-17 just a few miles south (in the old La Playa storefront).

If this storefront looks familiar, it may be because I did a closing on it in 2014, which it was Carolina Wings & Rib House.

I did not know Hummus Mediterranean Bistro existed until commenter Sidney mentioned that it was gone.

About all I know is that it was the follow-on operation in this spot to Uncle Maddio's Pizza and was run by the Al Amir folks. (Who rpeviously had a restaurant just up the street in University Corner at 629 Main Street.

This place got pretty good reviews, the last of which seem to be around March of 2019, so that's what I'm using for a closing date.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I'm not really a Domino's fan, but it's acceptable pizza, and when you're in college, that's probably the best you can hope for. This particular location is on the sharply sloped section of Devine that leads down from Main to Assembly, requiring that the lot be terraced. You can see a shot of it in operation, with the Domino's signage at the LoopNet listing.

They moved from this building to the old Sandy's location, after completely redoing the looks of that property. I'm a little curious about all this as Sandy's had apparently sold their store to something called The USC Development Foundation, which did not lead me to expect another retail food operation there.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 25 January 2022 -- Now The Smokeshop Guys:

I believe at one time this hole in the wall rib joint in an old house on Decker may have updated its slogan to Slap Yo Mama Good! but I can't verify it (and I suppose they were lucky Mick Jagger never drove by..). This was apparently a one man operation, and got pretty good reviews on Yelp, though apparently there was no indoor seating.

I like the idea of breakfast, and the foods of breakfast. I just don't like the *time* of breakfast, so I never got to the Famous Toastery on Sparkleberry. This place was the follow-on operation to McAlister's Deli, which moved kind of around the corner and down to front onto Two Notch.

The State records the place as having opened on 20 January 2017, so they had a run of about two and a half years. If I can detect a trend in the Yelp reviews it would be that the place may have been struggling a bit towards the end.

The State also reported that the downtown location which was supposed to open last year in the Main Street Atlanta Bread location was cancelled.

I wonder if the Spring Valley High School morning traffic was a factor here? The location doesn't seem that bad to me (though Carrabba's would beg to differ), but I don't go by when school is starting or letting out.

(Hat tip to commenter Bobby)

UPDATE 1 September 2021 -- Now Allena's Southern Kitchen:

I was unaware of this newish pizza joint until commenter Heath mentioned that it was closing. It's down the section of Sumter Street north of Elmwood, someplace I hardly ever go. Apparently a co-owner made himself notorious on social media recently and that hurt business, or at least that's the take at The State. Well, I don't do social media, so I missed all that, and anyway apparently that gentleman is no longer involved with the restaurant, so I decided I would check it out before it closes on Saturday.

It's a very small place, with only one lowtop table that I would pick as a favorite, but there is also some bar and hightop seating. You order at the counter, but they do bring the food to the table. They are fancy enough that they don't have pepperoni as an ingredient, so I ordered the Pizza Margherita (pictured above). I thought it was pretty good. The crust could have been a little crisper, and I whould have preferred a basil leaf on each slice, but it was quite tasty. I could never be a regular here because they do not have fresh brewed tea, but they do have some beer, wine and bottled drinks.

Here are stories on the closing from The Free Times and Cola Daily

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)