Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This little repair shop on Lake Murray Boulevard has obviously been closed for quite a while. Looking at google streetview, it has been up for sale at least since 2018. At that time, there was also a house on the property which has since been razed. It wasn't a big house, and this is a small shop, but the property is apparently quite large, as the current real estate sign advertises 8 acres. With the ongoing buildout up towards the interstate, I expect this semi-rural area will be transformed before too long.

I did not see any sign on the door, and google doesn't know anything about it, but there are no cars on the lot, and the website is down, so I believe commenter Robert is correct that Chris Polson Automotive on Lake Murray Boulevard has closed its doors.

(Hat tip to commenter Robert)

I have never been to either Alodia's, though from looking at their menu once, I decided if I were ever in the right place at the right time, I would like to try it. The Irmo location is a bit removed from what I generally think of as Irmo: Way out on North Lake in the Publix strip mall.

There have certainly been a lot of staffing shortages on the path out of the pandemic. In fact we found one restaurant in Myrtle Beach we were considering going to that said up-front on their web page to expect poor service! Some of that seems to be at issue here, though I am not sure what the "product shortages" would be. The only one I have heard of is chicken wings, which wouldn't be much of an issue for an Italian restaurant (and which would affect the Lexington branch as well, I would think).

Anyway, they are apparently teed up for a July re-opening here, and I certainly hope that comes to pass.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

UPDATE 31 January 2022 -- Open again:

UPDATE 4 October 2023 -- Closed again:

UPDATE 6 March 2024 -- The storefront is now empty and for lease:

Also updated tags.

I have been holding off doing a post on Deno's because it wasn't clear exactly what their status is; however, at this point they are clearly closed for a long-term, if not forever, despite the fact that there is no real-estate sign, and all of the furnishings and equipment are still in the building.

Somehow I had it in my head that Deno's was a seafood restaurant, and so never went. Looking online now, I think I clearly would have liked the place. The last review I see on their Facebook page (which has not updated since 2014) is from February of 2020, so I think clearly COVID-19 was an issue here, and the roadside sign does mention that they were open for takeout for some time into the pandemic.

(Hat tip to commenter Barbara)

UPDATE 17 August 2021 -- The sign has been patched, but not re-logoed:

UPDATE 15 November 2023: Update tags.

This closing was announced so long ago that I have several months-old daylight sets of pictures -- which will turn up eventually. I know I have stopped at this store a number of times over the years, and it was fine, though I did not particularly like coming back out onto Saint Andrews Road going left as I think there is no left arrow at Piney Grove.

In the final event, this is another Bi-Lo destined to be come a Food Lion. This State article, which I have probably linked before, has the details.

I do note that their street sign leaves their product line rather open-ended: "Food &".

(Lots of chatter about this, but I think commenter Andrew gets the hat tip for the closing signs going up).

UPDATE 20 May 2021 -- The Food Lion is up and running now:

This place sits beside and behind the local San Jose restaurant, and most of these pictures are from the parking lot there since it was raining. I get out this way very seldom and know pretty much nothing else about Helping Hands

This is the second time I've been here however as someone said a few years ago that this place was closing then, and I took a few pictures (which I can't now find), but they ended up staying open. This time seems to be definite, as the closing sale is being advertised and there is a real-estate sign. LoopNet has a map, showing that the property is much more extensive than I had realized.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

I tried the Philly Pretzel Factory on Rosewood shortly after it opened (it was fine), but was unaware of this location in the Publix plaza on Broad River Road. Judging from the Google reviews, this place opened in February 2020, possibly the worst time in the last 100 years to open a restaurant, and the door sign pegs the closing at 30 October.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

UPDATE 15 March 2022: Updating tags.

UPDATE 23 January 2023: Updating tags.

This little shaved ice emporium is in the parking lot of The Ole Timey Meat Market in Irmo, and I'm not really sure when it closed, but I can't recall ever seeing anybody there -- though I certainly don't drive that stretch of road more than once or twice a week, if that. At any rate, I'm sure Pelican opening in the old Tony's Party Shop, can't have helped, and as that was in 2017, I'll put that in the post title.