Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was vaguely aware of this place, but never got around to checking it out. The stone facade is something you saw on a number of buildings from the 70s -- I don't think anyone does that anymore.

Apparently this little plaza was the site of a bit of martial history.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Speaking of Pelican's (as we just were), I noticed that the Rosewood location is gone.

This was the follow-on operation in this building to Charlie's Barber Shop.

I'm not totally clear on what is going on. The real estate sign says that they have moved to 1912 Rosewood, which, as far as I can tell, is a vacant lot.

UPDATE 11 February 2025: Updating tags & adding map icon.

Today's post is for a place of which I was totally unaware and comes from commenter Homer:

[This] is a group of pictures from Cotton House Seafood at 7777 St.
Andrews Rd. in Irmo. The story is....

I don't know when they actually closed but the last Facebook post on
their page is from May and from the looks of the deck I can believe it.
The sign on the door states that there were robberies and thefts and
that they will be closed until further notice. I guess Irmo's finest was
too busy setting up speed traps or hanging out at the Circle K to notice
any of this going on. Well, today I noticed the for sale sign next to
the road. Doesn't look like they will be reopening any time soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Homer, obviously)

Although I had thought about going to Quaker Steak & Lube serveral times, somehow I never got around to it. If I *had* gone, I would have taken the frontage road east at I-20 & Clemson Road. As I found out yesterday, that doesn't work -- that frontage road does not go all the way through from Clemson Road to Spears Creek Church Road, and in fact you have to take the Spears Creek Church Road exit.

Once finding the place, I discovered it was a wings joint, so I probably would not have gone out there often anyway as I dislike the smell of chicken. That aside, it's a nice looking building, and apparently they had bands play the small stage in the parking lot, presumably in the warmer months. There are stairs leading from the Quaker Steak lot down to the Harley Davidson Thunder Tower, so I expect they probably got a good bike crowd for those shows.

Interestingly, if you google for Quaker Steak & Lube in Columbia, this address is not the first thing that comes up. Instead, you are referred to 2150 South Beltline Blvd, which if you look at google maps, was a vacant lot the last time they took aerial pictures. I haven't been down there, but apparently the ground has been cleared for at travel plaza, and the new Quaker Steak will open there in March 2017.

Which ties in with something else I read online

Sunday, May 1, 2016 10:28 PM EDT
WESTLAKE, Ohio -The deal has been closed to sell the Sharon, Pennsylvania based Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant chain to a national truck stop chain based in Westlake, Ohio.

Travel Centers of America announced last week that it has completed the acquisition of Quaker Steak for approximately $25 million.

The transaction followed a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by the parent company of Quaker Steak & Lube in November, which revealed that the wing restaurant chain had liabilities between $1 million and $10 million owed to hundreds of creditors.

So apprently Quaker Steak is becoming the house brand restaurant for TA Travel Centers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hot Sub Stop was the follow-on operation to Subway in this Eastover location way out on the Sumter Highway. The first picture above was taken on 15 December 2013, and I know the place was closed when we drove back from cutting a Christmas tree in December 2016, so the closing was in the rather generous range between those dates. I'm just going to say 2015.

Mr. D's was the followup operation in this location to Gilligan's and as of Mid August 2016 was bought by Steve MacDougall, the mayor of Lexington who had already been general manager.

The restaurant's Facebook page indicates that it was in operation as late as 17 December 2016, but commenter Brian noticed it closed on 16 January 2016. As you can see, a note on the front door indicates that they planned to re-open on 1 February 2017, but the real-estate sign outside suggests that plan has been overtaken by events.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

UPDATE 11 May 2019 -- Something is going on here, but there is no sign that says exactly what:

UPDATE 12 March 2020 -- Now Singh Leite Pediatric Dentistry:

The Lost Cajun was the follow-on operation to Yumilicious in this Lexington strip mall.

The State article on the closing mentions that there is another SC location in Greenville, and as far as I can tell, that location is still open, and the chain's site lists a number of restaurants in other states.

As you can see, the signage is already up for this storefront to become a Palmetto Subs location.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

UPDATE 19 February 2022: Adding map icon and updating tags.

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.

Well, this has already been discussed extensively on Have Your Say, but Eric's San Jose on Garners Ferry closed on Thursday 22 December 2016.

I believe I may have eaten in the building a few times when it was a steakhouse, but can only recall eating at Eric's once, when I found it of a piece with the Columbia Mexican restaurant scene: perfectly acceptable, but nothing special.

According to The Free Times:

Owner Eric Leon has sold the property to some developers who plan to build a cellular store and other retail shops...

UPDATE 8 February 2017 -- As mentioned in the comments, this building has been razed:

UPDATE 6 June 2017 -- The new building is going up (pic from 19 May 2017):

UPDATE 13 September 2017 -- The new building is almost done:

UPDATE 25 October 2017 -- Now open as a Verizon location (relocated from here):

UPDATE 21 May 2018 -- The new Eric's San Jose location at 4478 Rosewood Drive (the old Rooftop Pizza Pub location) is now open:

Well, Don Pablo's continues to dwindle away to nothing. As I wrote here, I used to like to go to the Columbia Mall location. Then when that closed, I was working in Augusta and used to like to go to that location. Then that closed, and I would hit the Charleston location from time to time, then that closed and I would stop by the Charlotte location once or twice a year, then that closed, and I would try to go to the Arlington location when I was in DC on business (hard if I had no car..), then that job evaporated and I would stop by the Atlanta location once a year or so, then that closed and I would hit the Greenville location when I had a leisurely weekend, then that closed, but I figured I could still hit the Orlando location on one of my periodic runs through Florida..

Well, no more. Orlando closed in October after the chain filed for Chapter 11 on 4 October 2016, as I found well after the fact.

It wasn't a total loss, driving down International, I had seen another Mexican place, Chuy's, so I backed up to there and had an excellent chile relleno, probably the best one I've had since I was in San Antonio.

Oh, and I don't think I know of a good way to be fired

but this *definitely* is not it.