Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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.

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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.

This little Chinese & Chicken outpost on North Main has been closed at least since March.

Wing Basket is obviously not the first tenant in this building, but the shape of it doesn't suggest anything concrete as to the original incarnation to me.

Longtime Main Street stalwart the Army Navy Store has moved into the old ReStore location in Capitol Square at 463 Sunset Boulevard.

This story in The State when the move was just a possibility recounts some of the store's history including:

But the store soon became known for more than just military surplus.

"When Michael Jackson was in town and his car pulled up out front and he came in shopping for jeans," Zalkin said, "I remember you couldn't even see the sunlight coming in through the front windows of the store for all the faces that had crowded around for a look in at him."

This story at Cola Daily describes the actual move.

The Main Street building was bought by Agape Senior, headquartered across the street.

UPDATE 18 December 2023: Note that I was wrong about the storefront in Capitol Square into which the Army Navy Store was moving into. It was actually to the left of Restore & Jin Jin, and has now closed. Also updating tags and adding map icon.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Coconuts was the follow-on operation to CW's Grill Blues & Jazz. I didn't really have any idea what type of place it was, but according to Yelp, it was Island food, with variable service, but apprently uniformly delicious plantains.

I'm not really sure how viable this spot is. There have been a number of places in and out in recent years, and the first thing I always think of when I see the storefront is "parking".

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I had driven past the Old Mill in Lexington a number of times since the great flood of 4 October 2015 which burst the dam, but I had never taken the time to stop and have a look. Since it was a nice sunny day and I had some time, I took the opportunity to check it out on 21 May 2016.

It appears to me that there were two channels out of the now dry mill pond to the creeks that cross under US-1. The south fork, which is now basically stagnant with no connection to the water flow out of the former pond and the north fork which comes through the dam washout, and is flowing quite vigorously. Since the channel clearly predates the dam breach, I guess there was a spillway in the dam for this channel to power the equipment of the original mill, and that this spillway gave way in the breach.

The dam itself is an earthen embankment and apart from the breach on the end nearest to the mill complex is still largely intact. I was able to get on top of it and walk almost to the breach. (I could have walked *to* the breach and gotten some better pictures, but I didn't see any reason to give another portion of the dam the temptation to give way with me on top..)

I'm not sure what the plans for the site are. There does not appear to have been any start at reconstructing the dam, and of course as the mill is no longer active, there is no necessity to do so, but the pond is a nice setting for the various restaurants and businesses in the old mill comples..

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I noticed an odd ad for Al Amir in the Free Times the other week, the wording of which was unusual enough that I suspected that one of its Main Street locations, at University Corner across from the the old Towers was gone. Driving by the other night proved that to in fact be the case. The spot is now occupied by another Middle Eastern restaurant, Sahara on Main. I thought I had a good shot of Al Amir here, but all I can locate now is a shot where you can barely see it in the corner, so I'll just go with these pix of the new storefront.

The other Al Amir on Main, The Epicurean by Al Amir at 1734 in the old The Elite Epicurean location is still there.