Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The impending closing of this Lexington Publix plaza wing stop was noted a while ago by commenter Ed, and commenter Brian confirmed the actual closing a bit later. The first shot shows the place still in operation and the later shots are from afterwards.

Curiously, Hot 4 Wings was just a few suites down from Wing Nuts, which shuttered in March 2014.

(Hat tip to commenters ED & Brian)

Noticed this vacant restaurant on Augusta Road next to the former Piggly Wiggly plaza.

A little googling turned up a LoopNet listing and an old FaceBook page that establish that it was a Sports/Biker bar called Reds On Augusta.

Judging from the fact that the last Facebook postings (other than an outlier which I'm guessing is a memory-lane post) are from late 2014, that's when I'm putting the closing.

See the LoopNet link for a picture of the place in operation.

UPDATE 11 August 2017: OK, commenter James R says they have not closed but moved to 3813 Augusta Highway. Well good for them! I'll add "(moved)" to the post title.

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)

UPDATE 16 June 2025: Updating tags and adding map icon.

As commenter Jason notes, this McDonald's on Sunset Boulevard near the I-26 interchange has closed for remodeling. This is something a number of the local McDonald's have done recently, including ones on Garners Ferry, Hardscrabble, Two Notch and Decker.

I don't expect this

but you never know.

(Hat tip to commenter Jason)

Yoghut moved from its original location near the old Barnes & Noble in early 2014. The new location was on the other side of the plaza, just to the left of Outback.

As you can see from these (mixed) Yelp reviews, it was open until at least 1 July 2017. There is no sign on the door, so I assume that they have now closed rather than again relocating.

The Main & Blossom location is still open.

(Hat tip to commenter Michellle A)

Embers moved into the old Pie-Tanza location in this upscale little strip mall on Polo Road probably some time in 2014. In the event, I ate there once, and decided it was ok, but nothing special enough to make the drive. (I do recall that they had fixed the water pressure issues in the bathroom that had affected Pie-Tanza).

When I was out that way today to use the contract Post Office in the convenience store, I noticed a new nameplate on the building. The new tenant is Upper Crust, also a pizza establishment. Since their sign proclaims that they were founded in 2017 (17 March 2017 according to The State), that's what I will use as the closing date for Embers.

Wow, there's "remodeling", and there's "tear out everything down to the bare walls, and some of those too". This is the latter.

The State says:

Once renovations are complete [in fall 2017], the location will include increased parking, new exterior siding, state-of-the-art kitchen equipment and a remodeled dining room with new booths, Wi-Fi access and USB chargers.

Somehow Lizard's Thicket has never seemed like a USB charger kind of place to me..

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, often in these situations, the "closed for remodeling" rubric is more a vague hope than a description of something that will actually happen. However, Wet Willie's finally did come back, so who knows? The external indications are mixed: this location is gone from the company website, but the signage has not been taken down.

At any rate The Tilted Kilt replaced Huller's German restaurant in this location, opening in early 2014. The chain is a "breastaurant" concept like Hooters but with a faux Scottish flair. I only went to this location once, when I was looking for something open late that wasn't just burgers. They had some sort of mashed potato pie thing on the menu that looked like it would be a) Pretty good & b) Hard to mess up. Either one or the other of those assumptions turned out to be wrong, though the scenery was nice.

(Hat tip to commenter Zach)

UPDATE 20 June 2017: Removed the "(temporary?)" notation from the post title based on the comments and this State article

UPDATE 17 August 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, this place is setting up to be Willie Sue's:

Also adding map icon.

Not sure exactly when Allstar closed, but Columbiafoodienews says that Papa Gios was prepping this spot to open on 16 December 2016, so Allstar must have been closed for probably a month or more by then. I'm just going to say "Fall 2016".

I do love me some pizza, but I never made it to this spot. Lexington is a good drive, and if it were normal hours, and I were going that far, I would probably get some Parthenon style pizza at Pizzeria Opa or it it were later, Uno.

Interestingly, Papa Gios seems to have all its locations in Orlando and the Midlands, which is a fairly unusual distribution.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I used to eat frozen yogurt from time to time, but have pretty much quit. If I am getting a cold treat, I don't want a "fat free" anything, I want a "fat full" experience. Be that as it may, if froyo is your thing, it's not your thing here anymore.

(BTW, you always hear that the three most important words are 'I love you', but really it's 'Hot Doughnuts Now').

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Hat)