Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Milano Pizza was one of the follow-on operations to the old Piggly Wiggly in the building at 3724 Covenant (which is basically at the corner of Covenant & Bethel Church). After The Pig moved out, the building was subdivided with a Dollar General taking the biggest slot on the left of the building.

The right side of the building, like Gaul, is divided into three parts. Tobacco World tried and failed to open in the middle suite, and Milano opened in the front one. (The rear suite has never shown any signs of life).

Since I like pizza, and it's fairly close, I had put Milano on my mental list to visit, but somehow it never seemed to come together. I do however, drive past the building almost daily, and it seemed to me that the hours were becoming rather erratic lately. I was never quite sure if it was actually closed, or not, but the most recent time I stopped by, I took a look inside and saw that the fish tank was gone, so I'm pretty sure the place is closed though no sign or note has been posted.

UPDATE 3 September 2013 -- Well, it's official:

(Hat tip to my sister)

Read the rest of this entry »

Are there any driving directions less useful than: "Take the exit with the Waffle House"?

Anyway, you don't see Waffle Houses closing too often, though I do have the one from Bush River Road here. On the one hand, I would have thought the closeness of this Waffle House to SLED would have guaranteed it a steady late-night business. On the other hand, the site is not like their usual Interstate exit locations.

Personally I like the fact that Waffle House never went to "Belgian" waffles, which seem to be the rage elsewhere now. I like a lot of litle holes for syrup rather than a smaller number of larger holes. And yes, that is the kind of thing you think about in a Waffle House booth at 3am.

(Hat tip to commenter Johnathan)

UPDATE 5 January 2022: Adding map icon and updating tags.

UPDATE 10 February 2025 -- Now King Smoke & Vape:

This little Irish pub was tucked away at the bottom of the hill in the little strip mall fronted by Dunkin' Donuts. In fact, it was so tucked away that while every time I saw it, I meant to try it out sometime, it would always slip my mind completely when I actually was looking to go somewhere.

I noticed recently when I was looking at Golden City, that it had, so to speak, changed its stripes and is now Kwagga.

Here's another closed Monterrey on the west side of the metro area.

Afton Court seems to be something of a hard-luck street over the last several years with the closing of Ritz Camera (though technically on another street) and more recently Bailey's.

I like the use of steps on this lot, including a set descending towards the adjacent movie theater.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

UPDATE 30 August 2017 -- Now Don Tequilas:

UPDATE 9 April 2014 -- Here are a few pictures from early January 2014 of the new building, which is now open. (Unfortunately, it was a very grey day):

I first wrote about this location doing a closing on the Ryan's that previously occupied the spot. That closed in early 2009, and by early 2010 (if not before) Hibachi Grill P&G Buffett was open in its old spot.

I don't know what the issues with the building are -- it's not that old, but apparently P&G are doing major work on it, and the restaurant is closed during the construction. (And this is not one of those hopeful "closed for remodeling" deals where you know it's never coming back -- the work has actually started and is ongoing).

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

UPDATE 16 July 2013 -- Took the "temporary" tag off the subject line as the location has opened as a new business, Ichiban Hibachi & Sushi Buffett:

UPDATE -- Ichiban has been doing some billboard advertising:

UPDATE 28 January 2020 -- As mentioned in the comments for the Ryan's incarnation of this building, the structure has now been razed. It's a bit of a shame because it wasn't a bad looking building:

UPDATE 21 March 2022 -- This place is setting up to be a Slim Chickens:

UPDATE 2 February 2023 -- Slim Chickens is now built and open, and Starbucks is built:

I had actually taken some pictures of this place last September, when I first got a report that it was closed. That proved to be short lived, and by the time I got over there, it was open again as seen in the first three pictures.

This month it re-closed, this time apparently for good as there is a real-estate sign in the window, and the menus have been taken down (although the nice neon sign is still there..)

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 17 January 2014 -- Now it's Olive Grill:

I had noticed Lexington Arms a few years ago when I did a closing on the Piggly Wiggly / Ace Hardware across the parking lot.

At the time, just from the rather 1970s look of the place, I figured it was a local hole-in-the-wall and didn't take the effort to find out anything about it. From my web searches today, I was apparently totally wrong, and this was a well regarded European restaurant serving authentic French and German food -- some of which you can apparently make them an offer on..

(Hat tip to commenter Kc)

UPDATE 8 August 2017 -- Well something is happening here. I assume the adjacent church is taking over and upfitting this wing of the plaza, but if not them, then someone is:

Well, this is no surprise I'm afraid.

I've told how the original Rosa Linda's was the first Mexican (ish) restaurant where I was a regular, and an important part of my beach trips from the 80s into the oughties, so I was quite excited when the original Rosa Linda's family started to re-establish the restaurant in the former Hoof 'n' Finz in Murrells Inlet where US-17 business and US-17 bypass reconverge around Inlet Square Mall.

When they finally re-opened, everything tasted exactly as I had remembered it, from the yellow rice to the pinto beans flavored with crisp bits of lightly cooked onion. My only disappointment was that the new floor plan (and possibly elevation..) did not make a pizza oven possible as I had really loved the pizzas in the old locations. (And after all it was "The Mexican / Italian Connection").

My only concern was that attendance seemed very light the times I was there, and sure enough I found it closed on one of my 2011 trips.

Later, I heard it was open again, but the story seemed a bit confusing. Basically piecing things together from the Rosa Linda's Facebook page, and some things that local restaurant writer Becky Billingsley (who often seems to know more than she puts down) had written (here, here, here, and here)., I think the story was this: The original owners had a silent partner in the re-establishment of Rosa Linda's and when the initial financial goals weren't met, the silent partner took over the operation with some grandiose plans for making it a chain.

I was a bit reluctant to go back, as the original manager knew me by sight if not by name, and I didn't want to undercut her, but after I saw that they had moved to Texas, I figured it would be OK to check it out. My thought was that the new management would have tinkered with the menu, possibly adding some standard Mexican fare such as chile rellenos etc while keeping the signature items in place. In fact that was not the case, and the menu was completely new without any of the historical Rosa Linda's items. I thought it was acceptable, but gave me no reason to come to Rosa Linda's in preference to the many other Mexican restaurants on the strand. I mean, no Mexicana Mud? Come on!

After that, the place showed the dreaded Rule #1 from signs your favorite restaurant will soon be closing: The hours changed. More to the point, though the place was not supposed to be seasonal, it closed for the winter with a note on the roadside marquee that it would be open again in March. When I went down in March, the sign said it would be open again in April. I think we all know how that story ends! When I went down in early May, the branding signs (except for the parking lot marker) had all been taken down, there were Home Depot boxes and packing tape inside, and the new phonebooks sat in lonliness outside the front doors.

Read the rest of this entry »