Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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.

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:

I noticed the otehr night that Hampton Hill Atletic Club next to Jimmy Johns in Shoppes At Woodhill had closed and been replaced by Stronghold Gym.

A little googling establishes that Hampton Hill went Chapter-11 (debtor in possession) at the end of June 2015. I guess in the end they were not able to reorganize and make a go of it.

Looking at things after writing the above, I think I may be wrong about this being part of Shoppes At Woodhill. It appears that Shoppes At Woodhill is the stores along Garners Ferry and Pellham Drive. The back side with Target, World Market etc appears to have separate signage.

This is the little strip at Shoppes At Woodhill which has seen Radio Shack and Qdoba leave and Chipolte and Starbucks arrive. In one of the pictures I took for Qdoba, I can see that this little wine shop originally had another name, but I can't quite make it out. At any rate, they are now closing and running their final sale.

(Hat tip to my sister)

I'm not sure what this little building in Landmark Square was originally, possibly one of those tiny hamburger drive-throughs that sprung up in the late 80s, but for a number of years it was what I thought of as The Elephant Ear place; I didn't know it was called J's Concessions until I did a google on the address.

The idea seems sound to me: People like "fair food", so why not open a permanent location for it? (They also had a food truck that used this as a base). Somehow I always end up only having Italian Sausage at the Fair; I probably should have stopped by.

Judging by the newspapers and Christmas lights, they closed up shop after the holidays.

After Trevin mentioned that this place was closing, I drove over and got some pictures while it was still open.. and of course now can't find them: The first picture above is actually from the Lane Bryant closing.

At any rate, I used to eat here about once a week while I worked off of Bluff Road. I didn't eat the pizza because pizza for lunch tends to shut down my brain for the rest of the day, but I would get the salad bar and some garlic bread. Shoney's probably had a better salad bar, but given my very limited time for lunch, I couldn't deal with possible delays in getting the ticket, and Cici's was self-serve and perfectly adequate. I also liked the fact that they always had a survey on the the ticket for $2.00 off next time if you filled it out. That covered the drink.

Not sure what the closing circumstances were. As far as I could tell, the place did a pretty good business, and in fact while I was taking these pictures, two different cars drove by, clearly looking to eat.

(Hat tip to commenter Trevin)

UPDATE 27 April 2016 -- Here are the pix from 12 April 2016 that I couldn't find before:

UPDATE 20 July 2016 -- Mod Pizza is open, but in the suite to the right of Cici's:

This Shoney's on Garners Ferry Road is closed for remodeling. I used to eat there now and again when I worked out on Bluff Road. It was a typical Shoney's with a decent salad bar and burgers. I'm not sure exactly what the remodel will entail. Newer Shoney's stores are bigger and boxier, but it doesn't look yet like they plan to tear down the existing building.

(Hat tip to commenter Kenneth)

UPDATE 2 May 2016 -- As reported in the comments, this place is open again:

UPDATE 10 September 2020: As reported by commenter Thomas, this place is closed again:

The chain has been in trouble for years now, and we have lost a number of locations in the Columbia area. Apprently the stress of COVID-19 combined with marginal sales anyway were enough to close this branch down, at least until people head back to restaurants in greater numbers.

Well, it's been all over the news, but this is the first Radio Shack I've driven past since the bankruptcy announcement.

This store is in Woodhill strip at the top of the lot, parallel to Garners Ferry. I've actually been inside several times over the last year, once for a AC adaptor, once for some CD-R media and once for something that currently slips my mind. The product mix is now a far cry from the old parts & kits era, or even the TRS-80 era, but still I can't see that another Sprint store is really an improvement.

I was at Panera on Garners Ferry this evening and I noticed that the Marble Slab Creamery has moved across the parking lot from the Cici's wing of the shopping center to the Panera wing. The new location is actually the old Starbucks location which became vacant when Starbucks moved into the old Qdoba location.

This Subway was way out on Garners Ferry in Eastover, next to the Hot Spot. Restaurants are pretty thin on the ground in this area, especially national chains, so I was a bit surprised to hear they had closed, yet not too surprised because customers are pretty spread out as well.

(Hat tip to commenter Gary)

UPDATE 19 February 2016 -- It's now Hot Sub Stop:

UPDATE 17 June 2022 -- Updating tags, and adding a possible closing date and map icon.