Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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.

Commenter Justin pointed out this place on Have Your Say a while back, but I misread the comment and blogged about the business on the other side of Confederate instead.

This place looks to be an old gas station of some sort, and in this latest incarnation, stuck with an auto theme. Personally, though I know my car gets scalding in the Columbia summers, I find being behind tinted windows makes me uneasy.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

You can look at the corner view in the LoopNet listing for this building at North Main & Confederate and see a portrait format marquee on the side.

Somewhere I have a picture of that marquee up close with the name of the place visible, but as is often the case, knowing I have a picture and being able to put my hands on it in a timely fashion are two sadly different things. Commenter Justin believes this was a window tinting business, and that sounds plausible to me. What google pulls up, however, are references to two different used car operations. If that's accurate, I think they both would have to be from some years ago, as I cannot recall the lot being anything but empty in recent years.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

This spot on Main has had trouble keeping a tenant the last few years. It was Mac's On Main for a long time, but the next incarnation CW's didn't last too long, and neither did Savalis, which I think was there about a year.

The signs indicate that a tenant is still needed, but apparently ceiling work has already started in advance of anyone moving in.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 1 October 2014: Added the first picture of Savalis in operation.

8 September 2013:

15 June 2014:

This place, by Yoghut in the Adesso building at the corner of Main & Blossom Streets was apparently a sister operation to Peppers House Of Pizza on Garners Ferry, and continued on several months after that one closed. If it were going to close, I guess the timing is not surprising. This building is right across from USC, and I imagine that anytime school is out is hard on the restaurants in this whole little strip (especially given the problematic parking for non-locals).

(Hat tip to commenter Payne)

UPDATE 28 June 2019: Add map icon.

Anyone know what this restaurant in Greenview Plaza on North Main at Wilkes Road was? The plaza marquee isn't any help, and I'm not getting any definitive google hits on the address + suite numbers. (There is another restaurant/club in the plaza, which doesn't help).

UPDATE 1 April 2014 -- Based on commenter badger's ID (and picture, see the comments..) I have changing the post title from "Restaurant" to "Bert's Grill & Diner".