Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

If you drove I-95 to Florida in the 90s or 2000s, you could hardly miss the plethora of billboards with the come-on We Bare All dotted up and down the highway. Darien's Cafe Risque may not have out advertised Dillon's South of the Border, but you'd have to be driving in your sleep to be unaware of it -- until recently, that is.

Having not noticed the billboards lately, I decided to check into what had happened to the place on my drive back to Columbia last week.

The building is at Georgia exit 49 off of I-95 (Georgia Highway 251) on the other side of the Interstate from an outlet mall, and like many roadside attractions turns out to be much smaller than you might expect from the massive billboard campaign.

I really arrived too late in the evening to take good pictures, but these flash and longer exposures turned out well enough to show the current state of the place. Interestingly, after a month of being around marsh and woods, this parking lot was the only place I had a real mosquito problem -- the moment I got out of the car, they descended on me en-masse and I was scared I might pass out from blood loss getting these shots :-)

This Florida Times Union (Jacksonville) article tells the story of the end of Cafe Risque, and its beginning. Apparently the owner hoodwinked the town into approving a cafe on the site, and didn't mention the mealtime entertainment he planned to provide, and since there was no alcohol involved, there was little the town could do about it. (The article headline implies the town eventually shut it down, but the text makes clear it was lack of business).

As far as I could tell from I-75 signage, a sister Cafe Risque is still in operation in Micanopy Florida, just below Gainesville.
Read the rest of this entry »

When the The Sheraton on Bush River opened, it was a big deal, and for many years it was certainly an impressive landmark designating the edge of town as you came in from Georgia on I-20. (Now of course the metro area sprawls out past the Lexington exits). Of course since I actually lived in Columbia, I never found a reason to stay at the hotel, and even to visit the restaurant would have been a long drive from Forest Acres, but I always imagined it as a "swanky" place. Thinking about it as an adult, I'm not sure I really understand the concept. It's been my experience in going to conferences that conference hotels are normally built in a downtown, or at least fairly dense suburban area such that there are restaurants and nightclubs for the attendees to go to in the evenings, especially those who took taxis from the airport and want something within walking distance. That pretty much describes exactly the opposite of this spot.. Columbia as a conference destination is a pretty hard sell anyway, but this isn't exactly The Vista (which granted didn't exist as such in the 70s, but there certainly were spots with nightlife..).

Anyway, The Sheraton operated as such until, I believe, the early 2000s. Certainly it still did in 1996 when they would have bought the ad for the February 1997 phonebook pictured here. After that, the hotel reflagged and was operated as a Radisson as shown in this year's (February 2011) phonebook until June. The new flagging is for DoubleTree by Hilton, a brand that I can't really place on the hotel ladder. I'm guessing they don't have a Dance Factory.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

UPDATE 11 July 2011 -- Originally I led with this drawing, which I believed was the Sheraton on Bush River, but it appears instead to be another ex-Sheraton, on Assembly Street. I have edited the text claiming that, and moved the picture down here for those who already saw it and commented on it:

I did a closing for this building a while back starting as Antonio's Restaurant and going through a number of different nightclubs and strip clubs.

At the time I made that post, the building seemed to be operating as Club Ego (despite the Studio 54 sign still being up). Since that time, Club Ego apparently shut down, and Club Colorz opened and shut.

I'm putting the closing date for Club Colorz as December 2010 because the flyers posted by the door talk about Christmas events (though I am not nearly hip enough to understand the contests being described), but not New Years events.

The building still has power, and is lighted nightly, so I presume there will be a new club by and by.

UPDATE 4 September 2011 -- It's now Laguna Sports Bar:

The champagne of bottle beer -- is that like The Cadillac of Fords? It just seems an odd comparison..

Obviously this building in Cayce at the corner of Frink & Ferguson Streets has been there a long time, and has probably been many things. The only two I can turn up in google however are Frink Street Tavern and Frink Street Pub, and in fact I'm not entirely sure those are two separate businesses instead of a variant name or mis-listing. If the are two separate operations, then Frink Street Tavern came first with Frink Street Pub opening and closing in 2007.

I say that because the myspace page given on the street sign still exists (after correcting the backward-slash vs forward-slash typo), and proudly proclaims an opening date of 25 February 2007 (while still looking for bartenders and "Kareoke" performers on 18 February..), giving this description:

We are a local pub located at 904 frink street cayce south carolina ...We have pool tables , golden tee , silver strike bowling and many other games ...we have the lowest price drinks anywhere , most beer is only a buck most liqour is only 2 bucks .....we do Kareoke ... live music ,juke boxes ,and like to have a good ole time ...We play country music , classic rock, and other good music ,we are open monday thru saturday from 2pm until ...and available for private party rentals on sundays .....Please stop by and enjoy an ice cold beer and get to know us ...you will have a great time !!!!!!!!! call us at 803-791-5875

However, the place is not listed in my Feb07-Feb08 or Feb08-Feb09 phonebooks, so I surmise that it did not make it through the year.

The various real estate listings all make clear that at this point this particular "track" of land is being sold with the building as more of a afterthought than an asset.

UPDATE 6 February 2012: Added Mote's Store to the post title based on the comments (which you should read). Apparently it was a little-bit-of-everything type old-time store.

UPDATE 25 November 2012 -- Looks like somebody has bought the property and is doing some work:

This south corner space in a Decker strip mall has been a number of things over the years. Columbia Importis a name I get by reading the label-scar visible in the picture, and not one I remember directly. The Pulse comes from reading the marquee on this building in Google Streetview, and finally Passion is the current sign, and the only one I specifically recall.

It was a latin nightclub, and when I would come off of I-77 onto Decker on Friday or Saturday nights, there would always be quite a crowd outside, until one night I drove by, and that side of the road was filled with flashing blue lights. I'm not sure what happened, or if that was the actual end of the club, but I don't recall having seen it open afterwards. I would say that at this point it has been boarded up for at least a year, which strikes me as a bit odd as the rest of the plaza is kept in reasonable shape, and it can't be helping property values.

Maybe there is no such thing as a recession-proof business...

On the other hand, this WPDE story speculates that perhaps Wal-Mart put some pressure on this Garden City strip club to close as they opened a new SuperCenter across the street. Certainly, the coming of Wal-Mart seems to be what closed the nearby Krispy Kreme (though the building is still standing so far).

I believe The Pink Pony building started life as a steakhouse, though the WPDE piece says the club had been there for a dozen years.

UPDATE 4 May 2011: Added Western Steer to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 12 April 2016 -- This place is now being renovated to open as Flapjacks Pancake Cabin:

The Swimming Pool Qs played the Rockafellas Reunion at The Tin Roof on Senate Street last Saturday. I saw them first at Bell Camp and then at Rockafellas back in the day, and a number of times since then. (Most recently at Doc's Gumbo Grille, just a block or so from the Tin Roof).

I'm afraid I did not stick around for any of the other bands' sets though I'm sure they were great.

The Qs played a fairly short set Saturday (somehow I missed the fact that they were at Wet Willie's on Friday), hitting both The Deep End and the A&M era, but not 2003's Royal Academy of Reality.

The sound was pretty good for an outside venue. The rain had stopped about an hour before, and the sun finally started to come out about the time the Qs took the stage. I have to admit the crowd was pretty sparse, but both the audience and the band seemed to be having a good time.

The Blue Martini was tucked away down an alley off of Lady Street, and I was totally unaware that it existed. In fact, when I first saw the news from commenter Summer, I read it as The Blue Marlin, and maintained that mistaken impression through what was for me a confusing article in The State. I had never suspected The Blue Marlin was a jazz club! :-)

The space is not vacant though. Legendary Columbia DJ Woody Windham has opened a new club called, naturally enough I suppose, The Woody in the spot. It certainly is a more intimate venu than one of his other ventures..

(Hat tip to commenter Summer)

According to this link the Boyne Building was designed in 1900 by local architect James Hagood Sams. I'm sure it has been a large number of things over the years, but the one which gets mentioned here more often than anything else is The Elite Epicurean. Unfortunately, I know almost nothing about it. I believe that for the majority of the time it was open, I was living out of town, and at any rate just the name would have put me off as being "too fancy" (not to mention the iffy-ness of Main Street at night).

All that aside, I can say it was listed in the 1998 phonebook (though with no Yellow Pages ad) and here's what some of you have said:

Club Dreams would seem to be one of those short lived dance clubs commenter Dave mentions -- the night picture is from a Friday night, when one would expect a dance club to be open, so I think it is gone as well.

I never made it to The Sly Fox which is a shame, because they had "poutaine" on the menu -- something I've wanted to try ever since hearing of it. My understanding is that it is basically french-fries covered with cheese-curds and gravy. The menu on The Sly Fox's web site (already off-line) specified that it was "squeaky" cheese curds too. According to what I've heard about cheese curds, they only squeak when there are fresh, basically only on the first day after, um, curding. This makes me wonder where they could have been getting the curds, as I'm not aware of any local cheese makers, and have never seen cheese curds for sale in Columbia.

Commenter Barb reports The Sly Fox was closed as of 4 Jan. I went by a couple of times this week, and there seemed to be a crew carting stuff out of the place. As you can see, the interior is pretty bare now, and the sign on the east side is down (though the one on the west is still up). The place is pretty much right across the street from Damon's and Paul's, so there is a good bit of vacant restaurant space in the area now.

(Hat tip to commenter Barb)

UPDATE 26 Jan 2011 -- Based on the comments I have added Scott Brothers & Palmetto's. Here is the Feb 97-Feb 98 Bellsouth Yellow Pages ad for Scott Brothers:

UPDATE 27 Jan 2011 -- It turns out I had some pictures of the MacDougall's incarnation as well: