Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As mentioned in Have Your Say, all Columbia area Harveys supermarkets are closing. You can tell how dire the trouble the parent chain is in by the fact that they spent a lot of money rebranding these stores from Bi-Lo to Harveys less than two years ago. I did not do a closing on this location as a Bi-Lo at that time, so I'm including it in the post title and Alphabetical Closings now.

At this time, none of Columbia's remaining Bi-Lo locations are closing, but that is probably another shoe waiting to drop. The full list of closing stores across both nameplates and over all affected states is here.

I noticed this vacant car refinishing storefront when I was getting pictures of Sandy Run Towing, which is two doors down from here. In fact I believe the intervening building (which has the most character of the three) is also vacant.

You can see a picture with the branding still present on this LoopNet listing.

According to The State, this North Main towing operation caught fire on 24 February 2017:

Columbia fire crews arrived at Sandy Run Towing at 3610 North Main just before midnight. They worked for more than two hours to put out the flames.

There were no injuries, but the building and the cars inside were a complete loss

Man! You've already had a bad day when you car gets towed. Now imagine it getting caramelized on top of that..

From the sign, it appears that they have now relocated.

UPDATE 19 January 2018 -- This building has been razed:

This is the second Sonic in Columbia that I am aware of closing. The Decker location closed in 2015. I like the idea of drive-ins with carhops, but in the event I never seem to end up wanting to eat in my car. I do get a milkshake every few years.

(Hat tip to commenter Toby)

So here's the Latest Good Idea From the Folks Who Brought You Stadium Lighting:

A major facelift is being planned for Columbia’s South Main Street that would narrow it from four to two lanes and eliminate all on-street parking.

For some reason I haven't had a Sandy-dog in years. Ever since I started working from home again, I figured one day I would drive down to main for lunch and do it, but someshow there always seemed to be a deadline or some urgent problem that would make me reluctant to go that far. I guess if I want to do it now, it'll have to be Broad River and on a weekend..

According to The State this Sandy's had been open since 1989. I believe that before that, it may have been a Hardee's though I'm not sure. It was some sort of fast food at any rate. This closing is a bit curious as in March 2016 The State was reporting that after a student housing scare they had just put a good bit of money into the building and planned to stay for the long haul, while by December 2016 they had sold the property to the USC Development Foundation.

You can see a good picture of the place in operation here.

UPDATE 18 April 2017: Added "Hardee's" to the post title. Apparently this was the Hardee's franchaise that later moved to the corner of Blossom & Assembly.

UPDATE 14 March 2019 -- Now a Dominos Pizza:

UPDATE 22 January 2020: Update tags.

UPDATE 19 June 2021: Update tags again.

I never stopped in this place, which was apparently a Lexington fixture, but I might well have liked it, as it apparently had Greek fare along with standard bar food.

Given the fact that they listed in last year's phonebook, but not this years, and that the last Yelp review is from 19 July 2016, I'm dating the closing as Summer 2016.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

When I heard about this closing, I did a google search for ABC troubles at the corporate level, and surprisingly to me did not turn up anything. Usually when a chain starts closing lots of locations, there will be a story in Forbes or Bloomberg or *somewhere* trying to explain the situation, and the prospects for turnaround.

Since I started this blog, Atlanta Bread Company has closed the locations at Sandhill, Lake Murray Boulevard, Socastee, Charleston and North Myrtle Beach. Now they seem to be leaving the Columbia market entirely with the closing of this store and upcoming closure of the Sunset location. Although there may be something in the Upstate, the Aiken Whiskey Road location is the only SC store left that I know of.

Absent any hard news of what's going on, I can only speculate that Panera took their formula and executed it just a little bit better, and indeed this store closed shortly after the Gervais Panera location opened just a few blocks away.

Read the rest of this entry »

I believe the first operation I can recall in this space moved here from the old Woodhill Mall, and may have been called Jonathan's. The reason I recall that specifically is that it featured in a story The State did on the best hamburgers in Columbia. For several years I had that story clipped and in my glove box as I tried out various of the places mentioned. Jonathan's (if that was the name) was one that somehow I never connected with at either location.

Stopping by on a fairly crisp fall day, the terrace space seemed as though it would be a nice spot to eat lunch al fresco.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

UPDATE 6 October 2016 -- Well, I noticed in the closing for Jefferson Square Theater, you can see that the restaurant spot was then Cavanaugh's Deli, "The Deli For Your Belly", so I have added that to the post title and a picture here:

I have also added The Lunch Box to the post title based on the comments.