Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was not aware of this Palmetto Pig location before commenter Beth pointed out that it had closed.

AJ AMick Road is off of US-76 in Ballantine, across the street from the local Food Lion. I'm not exactly when they closed, I take it that it was a recent surprise to Beth, but the place has been closed long enough for all the Palmetto Pig signage to be taken down and for the interior to be stripped.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

UPDATE 24 September 2013: Commenter Mike R. puts the closing at 1 September 2013, so I have updated the post title to reflect that.

Interestingly, while I never really heard of Mac's On Main (I was vaguely aware it was there in the Walker building), the upcoming closing of the place was big enough news to make both The State and The Free Times, with The State story apparently one of their most popular for the last few days.

Clemson Road eatery CW's Grill will be opening their second location in the Mac's building while Mac's owner (whose name is "Barry", not "Mac") will be concentrating on his fruit cobbler and catering businesses.

I had no idea this little sunken plaza was there on Saint Andrews Road until I went looking for Huller's a few weeks ago. It's quite a ways out, North of Lake Murray Boulevard, and I don't think I had ever been in the area before.

Although Huller's announced their closing on Facebook back on 14 July 2013, the place still looks like someone could fling the doors open any minute. All the signs and menuboards are still up with the weekly specials still posted. For that matter, the main web site is still available as well.

I've been to Germany, but about all I recall about the food is the hotel breakfast had limp bacon and the one time we tried to break away from work and go to a real restaurant, the hostess stalked off in front of us leaving us to weave between tables until she had totally lost us. We never saw her again, and ended up at a Chi-Chis, as I recall it.. So anyway, I was never moved to check out Huller's though I did like their I-26 billboard which was very much in the spirit of our old State Fair friend:

(Hat tip to commenter jason)

I first was aware of this restaurant space in the Adesso condos at the corner of Main & Blossom Streets when it had just closed as Baker Brothers American Deli (although I got the space conflated with the Yoghut suite which is in the same building). After that, I kind of lost track of it.

To be specific, I had no idea there was ever an Italian operation called Brioso Fresh Pasta there. In my defense, as far as I can tell, it didn't last long: The Feb 2012 phonebook has the only listing. The reviews are extremely mixed.

After that, I was somewhat aware of Tropical Grill though I never considered stopping there. My impression was that it was an Asian buffet, but I'm not positive about that. At any rate, they only listed in this year's (Feb 2013) phonebook, and I started seeing construction for the new pizza operation Maddio's Pizza Joint some months ago (I have pictures somewhere, but can't lay my hands on them now and it would seem that they have now started operation.

(Hat tip to commenter Payne for reminding me about this).

UPDATE 10 March 2025: Fix odd formatting due to restoring from Google cache. Add map icon, update tags.

Not sure what happened to my pictures here -- it looks like maybe I forgot to reset from a nighttime ISO to daylight before starting to shoot. The essentials are clear enough though, if more than a bit washed out.

The Atlanta Bread in North Myrtle Beach closed either last year or in 2011, I'm not really sure anymore. The only other ABC at the beach was this one on SC-54 just west of the US-17 bypass interchange. For a number of years, it sat sort of all by its lonesome (though the sideroad it was on obviously implied grander plans), but finally this last year Target started building behind it, and finally opened in late 2012 or early 2013.

I had had some concerns about the place -- it was the sort of operation which seemed to have no idea how many cookies to bake to last out the whole day (I'm pretty sure your loss in day old cookies is smaller than the loss you have from not making a sale..) and had the infuriating habit, which is pretty rare in chain stores, of not honoring their posted hours if things were slow. Still, it was nice to have a bread-bowl of soup there for lunch every now and then, and I figured that if they had hung on until Target opened, they were home free. That proved not to be the case, and the place was closed when I went by in late July.

The rest of the little strip mall has a gym, fro-yo, and a party shop. I had to include some pictures of the punch-me-pirate, including the one below from a few years ago.

Well, it took me quite a long time to get the interior shot here, largely because every time I would come in the door of the food court, a sample tray holder from the Asian restaurant would make a beeline on me. I really appreciate that kind of hustle, but it makes it difficult to inconspicuously take a picture when you are the sole focus of someone's attention! I finally recently got a bit of a zoom from the back end of the court. You can see the boarded up section where Chick-Fil-A used to be just to the right of China Max.

I was actually in the place to look at lawnmowers at Sears, and I note that they seem to be giving up on the mall. The mall stays open until 9PM, but Sears turns out the lights at 8PM, at least during the week. It certainly surprised me.

UPDATE 13 August 2013: Forgot the hat tip to commenter Trina.

UPDATE 28 January 2021: Adding full address, tags and map icon.

Well, while this was not unexpected (as commenter Jay raised the flag months ago), it was still a shock when I drove downtown the other night looking for some Harvest Grain & Nut Pancakes.

I guess that over the years I have eaten at this IHOP dozens of times. It was kind of like riding in an airplane to go in there: You were always sitting closer to someone else than you really wanted to be -- the positive spin would be "intimate", but the place was *tiny*, and you never knew quite what sort of conversation you would be overhearing. Still I enjoyed my visits. The waitresses seemed to keep an eagle eye out for my glass needing a refill, and the fare was basic enough that it was always pretty good.

The State has an article on the tear-down and rebuilding of this IHOP. Apparently it has been there since 1968, which sounds about right to me. The new building will be bigger and have a patio. From going by the site, it appears to me that they will be extending their site onto the vacant lot on Assembly between the IHOP and the neighbooring law office.

This was the last classic look IHOP in the Columbia area. The other one was torn down in the early 2000s and not rebuilt.

(Hat tip to commenter Jay)

UPDATE 21 January 2014 -- Laissez les bon temps rouler!:

Somehow I never made it to this Monterrey in all the years that it was there (and they were considerable) despite the fact that I often visited the adjacent Sounds Familiar and comic store.

I believe with this closing, the chain is down to the one in the Vista and the one on Knox Abbott.

(Hat tip to commenter J.P.)

UPDATE 12 February 2020 -- Now El Paraiso:

This Subway was in The Vista Lofts on Gervais Street just above the train cut, a building which lost another restaurant Mezza fairly recently.

I'm guessing that they closed shop at the end of July as that is a logical time as far as leases and bills go, but I don't know for sure. At any rate, all the signage is down and the interior is stripped. The only clue that it was a Subway is the drink cup on the floor.

(Hat tip to commenter Joe)

UPDATE 17 July 2014 -- It's now Black Bean Co.:

UPDATE 17 June 2022 -- Updating tags and adding map icon.

Apparently this was not the last Krystal in South Carolina, but it's pretty close. It looks like the other few that are left are clustered along the Georgia and North Carolina border areas with none in the Midlands, Pee Dee or Low Country.

This store, on US-17 Business near to Inlet Square Mall is not in an obviously bad location (though a Five Guys did open nearby a couple of years ago) but is in a little strip that doesn't seem to prosper. In particular, a Moe's failed a few storefronts down, something that seemed unlikely to me at the time, and one end unit has cycled through quite a few entertainment concepts (comedy club, karakoe..) in the last few years.

UPDATE 7 June 2023: Adding map icon.