Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Like the Burger King at North Main & Sunset, this Two Notch Road King (next to the Post Office) is remodeling, and is closed while that takes place.

The influx of new burger chains to Columbia seems to have sparked a good deal of revamping at McDonald's and Burger King.

(Hat tip to commenter Javier)

UPDATE 5 December 2012 -- Open again!

This should be some sort of lesson to me as I had several daylight pictures of this place, but a few weeks ago I decided they weren't very good, and deleted them with an eye to getting some better ones at some point. That's not the first time I've done that sort of thing either. I should learn!

However I did manage to hold onto the two nighttime pix of the place which are presented up top.

Commenter Joe Hinson remarks on the "old style" of the demolished building, but when I tood the night pix, I was thinking how modern it looked. In part I suspect that's because I remember at least one other version of the store here, and probably two.

The initial building sat much closer to the road than the most recent one, and was, I think, still in the classic McDonald's "walk up" style. It was something like this retro building from Starke Florida:

I believe this version was the first McDonald's in Columbia, and indeed, the 1970 phonebook lists 4801 Garners Ferry Road as "No. 1", with 1303 Charleston Highway as "No. 2", 2907 Two Notch as "No. 3", and 1729 Broad River Road as "No. 4". (4336 Wildcat Road was listed as the office location). Certainly it was the first McDonald's I had ever encountered, and it played a big part in my elementary school days at Satchel Ford. This was because, while we normally got our burgers at Bell's on Forest Drive, when report cards came out in Richland One, this McDonald's always ran a promotion such that if you had all 'A's & 'B's, you got a free hamburger.

Now, in those days, I was a pretty good student, and I always had all 'A's & 'B's, *except* for handwriting for which I always had a 'C'. In my mind, handwriting was not a "real" subject, and I always had my father make that case to the window clerk, and it always worked. In retrospect, I know he didn't relish the idea of arguing with some guy over a burger, but he was proud of me, and a great dad, so he did it every report card period without demur. I believe that mascot "Ronald McDonald" debuted in this era. Initially he was a pantomine clown with an overbearing boss whose tasks for Ronald always turned into a series of pratfalls..

The second McDonald's here, I think was a non-descript 70s building that did emphasize inside dining more than walkups, but had no play area. We didn't go to that one often because by that time, there was one more or less at the corner of Decker & Trenholm which was closer and involved fewer traffic lights. (And Bell's was gone by then). I believe it was at this point that the restaurant was set further back from Garners Ferry.

I'm not sure when the play-area, boxy looking remodel came in, but I think it was while I was living out of town in the 80s or 90s, by which time I was essentially never eating at McDonald's anymore. (Lately they have learned to make a very good cup of coffee, and provide wifi so that I finally have been back some).

(Hat tip to commenter mamarose)

UPDATE 1 September 2012 -- I found another set of daylight (well, twilight..) pictures of the building:

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- Construction has started is moving at a pretty good clip:

And here's a yellow pages ad from the walkup days:

UPDATE 18 September 2012 -- The frame appears complete, and hiring has started:

UPDATE 9 November 2012 -- As mentioned in the comments, this store is open again:

I almost forgot to get pictures of this McDonalds at High Point On Decker which has been closed the last month or so for a complete remodel/rebuild. In fact, I did forget until it is already open again for drive-through traffic. The dining room should be re-opened in the next few weeks.

I notice that the Chick-Fil-A down the street by Decker Mall is being remodeled as well.

Here at the corner of North Main & Sunset Drive is another Columbia area Burger King not serving hamburgers.

However in this case, unlike many cases where a "remodeling" sign is more a fond wish than a hard fact, I think we can expect this store to be back in business before too long as there is actual work underway inside and out.

Heck, even the french fries are being remodeled!

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 8 March 2012 -- Repainting has started:

UPDATE 24 October 2012: I've got some pix somewhere, but I shouldn't wait to find them to say that this Burger King is done remodeling and is open again.

Driving down Sunset to North Main the other day, I noticed that King's Chef Chinese Restaurant is closed -- closed and fenced off, to be exact. I'm not entirely sure when this happened, but I drove by a number of times in December and didn't notice anything wrong, so I'm guessing January.

Just from looking at the building, it was evident that it had been a chain fast-food place of some sort before King's Chef moved in, and a glance at my 1997 phonebook confirms that the original tenant was McDonald's. I don't recall when that closed (and don't have the directories at home to research it), but I think King's Chef has been there a good while, so I would guess early 2000s.

King's Chef is not the only re-purposed fast food in the area. Almost directly across the street is a Long John Silver's which has been turned into a TitleMax. (And of course, the Family Dollar next to King's Chef is a re-purposed Eckerd Drugs.)

UPDATE 6 February 2012: Commenter Thomas notes that there was a fire here and that they are rehabilitating the building, so I have appended "temporary" to the post title.

UPDATE 18 September 2012 -- It's open again (and has been for a while):

This has already been discussed a good bit on Have Your Say, but:

Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce.. Looks like another Columbia Burger King has closed shop. This one was on Devine Street, just before it intersects in a triangle with Fort Jackson Boulevard and Cross Hill Road. It's certainly a less tony section than the bulk of Devine, and a number of businesses have come and gone in the general area over the years. It is, however, also just across from where the upscale Whole Foods will be going into the former Family Mart / Kroger, so it will be interesting to see what eventually ends up here. Or, it could just be those poor registers saying "Cannot Locate Fileserver" for years..

(Hat tip to commenter Frank)

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I have to admit I had no idea that this little place existed, despite driving past there a number of times over the past few months, and I have to wonder if the location was a factor in the place closing. In theory, it is visible from Garners Ferry Road, but in practice, this strip sits behind Ruby Tuesday and is not very conspicuous. Even if you are taking Patterson Road to the Wal-Mart across the street, Ye Old Fashioned would be on the side of the strip away from Wal-Mart...

Judging from the still extant web-site, The Old Fashioned is a Charleston institution, with this location being their first venture out of the Low Country. I have to say that the menu looks pretty good, though I probably wouldn't have driven all the way over there for lunch.

(Hat tip to commenter ginagate)

UPDATE 18 December 2011 -- Now open as Anthony's Old Fashioned Burger & Fry Co.:

UPDATE 8 January 2020 -- Updating the post address to remove the 7490 Garners Ferry Road address. The 7457 Patterson Road address seems to be the official one, though I have seen both. Added map icon.

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Big thanks to commenter Gary, who sent in these pictures of Sloan's Drive-In on the Sumter Highway, and says that it was located near Universal Drive. The pictures are from an old Lower Richland yearbook, and apparently the restaurant owner was a LR booster to judge from the signs.

I have to say that I absolutely no memory of ever seeing this place, and we used the Sumter Highway to go to the beach for most of the 1960s and early 70s (until I-20 made Screaming Eagle Road an attractive option). Gary puts the restaurant in the 1970s, but I'm a bit skeptical. The design aesthetic looks much earlier to me, 50s or 60s, and I can't find a yellow pages listing for the place in my 1970 restaurant pages (or any other of the '70s pages I have here at home). Anyone have any personal recollections of the place? The country could certainly use a good $0.19 hamburger!

UPDATE 23 October 2011 -- Ok, I have done a little checking at the library, and this is what I found out about Sloan's:

They first listed in the December 1967 Southern Bell phonebook, and last listed in the December 1969 directory. They ran the same Yellow Pages ad (reproduced below) in each year of their listing. Also, as mentioned in the comments, the 8010 Garners Ferry Road address where Sloan's sat has been subsumed as part of Grace Hill Plaza, which is officially 8006 Garners Ferry Road. Also, the official name was Sloan's Charcoal Hamburgers so I have changed the post title from Sloan's Hamburger Drive-In to that.

The original Columbia Hooters was on Broad River Road near to Dutch Square and Intersection Center. Keeping abreast of trends, the chain relocated from the distressed Broad River area to Harbison, and moved into the site of the former Hops brewpub at 5195 Fernandina Road. (Curiously, when Columbia got a second Hooters it also set up shop in a former Hops, this one on Two Notch Road).

After Hooters moved, the Broad River Road building (which was not built as a Hooters, but some other restaurant I can't recall right now) was knocked down, and rebuilt as a Taco Bell which itself was a relocation for the original Broad River Road store.

Also, as an aside, I just learned today that Hooters is part of a whole market segment, the name of which I just have to stop and admire: Breastaurants.

UPDATE 24 June 2024: Update tags, add map icon.