Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter Bobby reports this location closed as of today (16 February 2017). It's not a surprise as it's been in the offing for several months. As to what's next, as The State reported in December:

In the spring, the location will become home to the second area Charleston-based East Bay Deli. East Bay opened its first area location at 1426 Main St. in Columbia’s The Hub apartment complex downton on Nov. 14.

I used to eat at this location every few months. I liked to get the Pumpkin soup in the winter. Along with a bread bowl, it was a very nice meal. I enjoyed the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies as well; something they don't have at Panera. They used to have a pepper grinder at the condiment station that was nice as well.

(Hat tip to commenter Bobby)

UPDATE 18 February 2017 -- Well, they certainly started into the remodeling quickly:

The Southern Belly (whose sign I originally misread as "The Southern Belle") was the follow-on operation to The Rolling Stone at this Rosewood lot near the Fairgrounds which has been home to many bars and restaurants. I see, in fact, that they never got around to completely removing the Rolling Stone signage, which wasn't essential as I understand the ownership was the same.

At some point around 2015, they moved shop to 819 Harden Street, the former site of Mucho Maragaritas, San Jose, Sizzle and many others over the years:

Personally, I believe I like the Rosewood spot better, at least for parking.

UPDATE 15 February 2017 -- According to commenter Justin, this was not a move as I indicate above, but they ran the Harden Street location (and a Colonial Life location) in parallel with this one and only recently closed this branch. I've taken "moved" off the post title and put a better guess at the timeframe.

UPDATE 11 July 2018 -- Now Peebles Wing Shack:

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.