Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, I took my eyes off the old Popeye's location, and missed two closings.

South Carolina Dream Wings was the follow on to Jade Palace which closed in early 2018. South Carolina Dream Wings opened shortly thereafter, and I'm not sure when they closed.

After that, and without ever getting around to changing all the signs, Uncle Ozzy's opened. It was, in a complete change for this spot, a schnitzel operation. The Free Times highlighted it as a Bite Of the Week location, proving once again Yogi Berra's observation that It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future:

The location has had a long and varied history, but Ozzy gives you a good feeling that this could be a place that sticks around for a really long time.

[Update: Uncle Ozzy's closed suddenly after Free Times sampled its Hunterschnitzel on Sept. 12.]

Looking at Uncle Ozzy's Facebook page, it appears that the owners had a falling out.

UPDATE 12 May 2020 Fix the address. There seems to be some confusion, but I think it's 3315 Farrow Road. Certainly what I had (3115 Farrow) was wrong. Also, hope springs eternal. This place is now Noisy Wings:

To the best of my memory, I ate at this Rush's sometime shortly after it opened, which is the only time I have been in one of their stores. I'm not sure why that is, as it was fine, and I was impressed with the state-fair-like presentation of the fries in a paper cup.

I admit to being a bit surprised at this closing, as I figured with the county takeover of Decker Mall, they would have a steady lunch business of civil servants crossing the parking lot for a bite.

The State says however that it was a 40 year old building that had age and maintenance issues and:

“At some point you just have to let it go.”

The stonework facings are definitely of another era, though not quite as distinctive as the old Popeye's buildings.

This closing makes two vacant restaurant buildings on the Decker Mall property, which seems odd. As I said with the county office workers (and law enforcement) nearby, I don't see why the site couldn't support a new restaurant, though perhaps either building would have to be razed and rebuilt.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

UPDATE 18 December 2019: Added the first picture from 2 November 2019, the actual last day of operation.

UPDATE 4 February 2021 -- To be Cod Tail Seafood & Chicken, a Charleston outfit. I really do not like that name!

UPDATE 22 August 2022: Updating tags.

The WordPress blog editor has a button called "Save Draft", which is, I suppose, appropriate to this post, as The Casual Pint is no more.

The Free Times noted the opening on 22 July 20 2016 of

the fastest growing franchise in the craft beer industry

and also noted the closing on 2 November 2019.

The only remaining SC location for the chain is 217 Saluda Springs Road in Lexington, which looks to be on the block behind the Mellow Mushroom.

Here is a State story on the Dupree Building of which The Casual Pint was a tenant. It's a nice looking place. I should have checked the entrance to see what's upstairs.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I'm not going to attempt the metal umlaut in the post title, but Yogen Früz is a froyo franchaise operation which is still in operation, though this closure leaves the nearest store in Florida or possibly Virginia. I guess it's not too surprising that if an ice cream or froyo shop is going to close, the start of colder weather is a trigger [this was wrong: see note below].

This location is on the same "block" with the former corner Starbucks (and in fact you can somewhat see it in those pictures), and across from the centeral traffic island/venue at Sandhill.

King's Pizza was the follow-on operation in this spot to Charlie's Wings & Seafood. They opened sometime in the spring of 2019, and apparently closed in September. At one time, a number of other locations for King's were mooted, but they may have tried to build out too fast, and I don't believe any, with the possible exception of a co-branding with Planet Pizza came to pass.

UPDATE 4 February 2021 -- I'm not sure what is going in, but some sort of upfit is being done on the building:

UPDATE 23 August 2021 -- Now open as Starbucks:

UPDATE 13 September 2021 -- A more attractive of the new Starbucks:

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.