Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Pretty plainly a service station at one time, this building at the intersection of River Drive, Sunset Drive and Clement Road had most recently been a title loan operation before Buck's Cafe moved in.

I presume that the cafe was associated with Buck's Market catty-cornered across the intersection, but I don't know that for a fact. I believe Buck's opened here in 2014, closed for remodeling around the end of that year and then re-opened in 2015. Somewhere I have some pictures of the restaurant in operation, but as usual, cannot put my hands on them right now.

The follow-on operation to Buck's is the aptly named 3 Point Cafe & Grill which judging from the sign is a "home cooking" type of restaurant.

UPDATE 21 September 2021: Adding map icon.

Not sure exactly when this Blythewood barbecue joint closed, but I don't see any reviews later than 2011. The building is now a restaurant and catering operation called Eve's Southern Gourmet.

(Hat tip to commenter CH Smoot)

UPDATE 6 January 2016: Commenter Beth notes that Eve's is now also closed (though she still caters) so I have added that to the post title, along with Meyers as noted by commenter Mr. BO.

This storefront, co-located with a convenience store, was orginally Kotas Sandwiches. After that closed, the place re-opened for a while as Kotas Your Way!.

It appears from the signage, and the food truck parked in the lot that the new owners have closed the storefront and now concentrate on catering chiken & pizza from two food trucks.

UPDATE 11 July 2016 -- Now PK-BBQ:

Mari's Lake House was the followup operation to Bentley's Beach House in this North Lake Drive building in Lexington.

As far as I can tell, the setup was very similar, with even the same AMF Sunfish still sitting in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure the free beer offer was new though..

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

UPDATE 30 August 2016 -- Now Levi's Lake House:

UPDATE 27 January 2022: Adding map icon. Putting in a closing date, which I apparently forgot to do originally.

Feel Goods, in the old Taco Bell and Nick's location on Decker, is an interesting case of a flood closing.

This building is raised a good bit above the old Captain's Kitchen location where Decker washed through during the 6 October 2015 flood, and I don't believe there was water in the building. However, it was nonetheless on a section of road that was closed for several weeks, and that loss of access and business was apparently enough to tip the scales, at least for now. Hopefully they will be back, but there is no signage indicating anything one way or the other.

UPDATE 9 February 2016 -- It's official now, the building is up for sale:

Here's another Great Flood of 2015 casualty.

This little restaurant on the Fort Jackson gate off I-77 has been there under one name or another for years. Originally, it was Saki, then when the current owner, who was working for the former owners, bought it out, he changed the name to Saky. This is what The State had to say:

“Who expected all this rain and the flood?” Sun Suk said as repairs continue on the eatery on Fort Jackson Boulevard at I-77.

The 7,500-square-foot structure housing Saky was damaged by the same flash flood Oct. 4 that inundated homes in the King’s Grant neighborhood.

Saky bore the brunt of the flood on its side of the road.

Two feet of water came inside and a tree fell on part of the restaurant after the bank of a nearby creek eroded in the rush of water.

“I walked in and it was a little wet, so I thought maybe it wasn’t too bad,” Sun said. “Then I went in back and could see the sky from inside of the building, so I knew I had a big problem.”

The first picture is from some years ago, the others from after the flood, though I could not get too close.

Hopefully they will be back soon.

Planet Hollywood in Myrtle Beach was always an interesting building to drive by. I thought it looked a bit like an elephant "hoovering up" (as our Brit friends might say) customers from the parking lot through that trunk-like canopy and into the elephant's head. There also seem to be some scary teeth involved.

In the event, though I drove by many times, I only ate at Planet Hollywood once. I'm guessing it was back in the 90s, and I had an unobjectionable, but completely unexceptional hamburger. I have heard in recent years rumors that the place was in financial trouble, and I can only guess that people wised up to the fact that a burger's proximity to Bruce Willis's tennis shoes or whatever does not make it worth $15 -- the place limped through the 2015 Labor Day weekend and threw in the towel on the following Tuesday.

The night pictures above were taken on 3 May 2012, while the post-closing pictures below are from 3 October 2015, a gray day coming just before the bottom dropped out on 4 October (though it was not anywhere near as bad on the Waccamaw Neck as in Columbia). I find it interesting that while they did not spend a lot of effort destroying the celebrity handprints around the building, they *did* spend considerable time defacing the nameplates that would have told whose hands they were. (Though they did miss a few).

(Hat tip to my sister)

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I had not noticed until recently that Sato on Beltline took major flood damage and is closed for repair. In retrospect it makes sense as the restaurant is located at the low point of Beltline as it comes down from Forest Drive and before it starts back up towards Trenholm Road. Looking at google maps, it appears that the nearby creek which presumably did the damage is called Orphanage Branch, a name I can't ever recall hearing.

Touchdown's opened in a former Sammi's Deli sometime around October 2013. I'm not a big wing fan, and it's nowhere near where I live so I never made it in. I noticed last weekend as I was drive by that it was closed and had been relaced by a pizza operation:

Commenter AW noted that the Sammi's on Beltline is now closed and a Peruvian restaurant is in its place -- although looking closely at this shot I snapped from the road, I'm wondering if that might be gone as well.

As far as I am aware, this (if open) is the only Peruvian place in town. It's supposed to be one of the world's great cuisines, but it's not one I know anything at all about.

As for Sammi's, I have to admit the only time I've been in one (not this one) I was so non-plussed at the interior that I just ordered a drink and left rather than eating there.

(Hat tip to commenter AW)