Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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While I was out and about today, I noticed some guys apparently hanging a new banner that said Zeus Pizza on the marquee of Tony's Pizza at Parkland Plaza. When I got back by after making a few other stops, it appeared that perhaps I was wrong and they were taking it down, or they needed some more tools to make it stick. Either way, it's clear from looking at the signs in the store windows that the name change is official. I drove down the street to the Tony's near 12th Street, and there is no indication of any change there, so I guess just this location has changed ownership. (The Parkland Plaza roadside sign still lists Dollar Discount as well as Tony's).

The door sign namechecks Columbia's Greek Festival. I certainly took the opportunity to stop by this weekend and have some Baklava and Galaktoboureko!

(Hat tip to commenter Tonkatoy, sort of)

UPDATE 30 September 2011 -- Commenter Andrew sends these two pictures of the new Zeus banner I saw now being successfully installed:

If You Build It, They Will Come

But will they stay?

Apparently the city has poured two million dollars into this small shopping plaza on North Main, with very little to show for it.

Last year they lured Cici's Pizza away from its longtime location on Decker Boulevard and things were looking up. This year not so much. Recent years saw the closing of another nearby city sponsored restaurant, The North Main Deli, but just across the street Zesto's still seems to be going strong. Perhaps there's a message there.

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

Well, this is already getting talked on on Have Your Say, so I may as well go ahead and post early today..

I realize this will get pushback from a lot of folks (sorry Jonathan!), but I never really found the food at Yo Burrito to be as good as the chain burrito stores. In particular I thought it didn't come close to my favorite, Moe's. The burritos always seemed on the dry side to me (particularly the rice), and while they had a lot of different types of salsa, they managed to do that without hitting on one I really liked (and they served it in ridiculously small cups). What I did like about the place was that the service was always friendly, and that they had a nice semi-patio area where you could sit and watch the passers by on Devine Street while sometimes a bird would hop in through the window -- I would do that for Sunday lunch from time to time. That may be possible again later -- note the "Thanks for 9 Years" door sign that says a new restaurant is coming this fall.

I'm pretty sure Yo Burrito started in Charleston, and that's where I first encountered them, at their original location near the College of Charleston Campus. There were famously evicted from there when the college took over the building, but were able to relocate in the same area. As far as I know they are still open in Charleston, but I have not checked..

Interestingly, I "learned" of this closing though my daily perusal of Google Analytics -- software that tells me what keywords people are searching for when they come to the site from search engines. Yesterday I got several hits on variations of "Yo Burrito closed", then commenter south mauldin confirmed it earlier today.

(Hat tip to commenter south mauldin).

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Gabby's Pizza replaced D'Avino's Pizzaeria (which closed in September 2009) in the little doorless corner spot across from the former Chick-Fil-A. On the face of it, this seems like one of the better spots in Dutch Square, as it sits just down from the movie theaters so that you could grab a slice before your show, but in practice apparently no so much.

While I don't know this for a fact, the name "Gabby's" is unusual enough when associated with pizza that I'm sure this outfit was connected with Gabby's Pizza & Buffet which recently closed at Fashion Place on Decker Boulevard.

(Hat tip to commenter Kc)

Well, that didn't last too long, unfortunately. Gabby's replaced the former Cici's Pizza sometime in the summer of 2010, and according to the legal papers now posted on the door must have closed before 5 Jan 2011.

I never made it to Gabby's but I was hoping that with its launch, the city was at up-one after CiCi's moved to North Main. In the event however, it seems that the net effect is that the city used tax dollars to lure Cici's to a subsidized location and left privately owned Fashion Place in the lurch (and undercut the city's own Decker Corridor efforts).

I have to say that the Pizza King looks like a really stern monarch. If you didn't order the anchovies on your pie, you would eat it and like it..

I don't actually remember seeing this place in operation, and I normally keep an eye out for pizza. Either it closed while I was living out of town, or given the odd location (Fort Jackson Boulevard where Crowson Road follows Gill Creek past K-Mart) and lack of apparent parking, my eyes just slid over it.

I know Pizza King can't have been the first operation in this building -- That illuminated arrow looks like it dates back to the 60s at least.

UPDATE 12 August 2014 -- This building is to become the new location for Utopia:

The point when North Main Street turns into Wilson Boulevard and crosses over I-20 never seems to prosper for some reason. Or at least so it seems with it having lost Denny's, Gaz-Bah and Pizza Hut.

I suspect the Pizza Hut was one of those brand-destroying kiosk type locations and probably no big loss, but I used to notice the sign when I lived in Aiken, and would travel I-20 west many weekends. I thought I was familar with most Columbia Pizza Huts and could never quite place where it was, as I was expecting a freestanding building.

I have to say that the enclosing "Travel Plaza" has seen better days and is confusing to get in and out of to boot. I had no idea until I took these pictures that the little I-20 industrial frontage strip is called "Plumbers Road". I wonder if it had a plumbing dispatch office on it and got named that during the great 9-1-1 sevice street naming binge of a few years back or it has always been that. There is also a Day's Inn a bit further down the street, and I expect they must work really hard to find "reasons to pick our location" on their marketing...

UPDATE 26 June 2023: Updating tags, adding map icon. Also noticed this Pizza Hut is listed twice with the other listing under the Wilson Boulevard address. Oh well.

I don't drive down River Drive all that often, but when I do, I always note this building. It seems to me that it is a close twin to the Mediterranean Tea Room building on Devine Street, although the Tea Room building has had a lot more work done to it, especially in the last few years.

I had it in the back of my mind that it hadn't been vacant all that long, but when I finally stopped to look and take these pictures, it was obvious from the state of the interior that it had been empty a good while.

Googling the address turned up an interesting story, which apparently did not play out as planned. These three PDFs of 2008 zoning board minutes here, here and here tell the story.

Many years ago, the place was a cleaner (they never mention the name) and then Martha's Era (they never explicitly give that name either, but it seems pretty clear that there was only one antique business ever there). By 2008, they were talking about the building having been vacant for 20 years, and indeed, I cannot find Martha's in the 1998 phonebook.

At any rate, a new tenant wanted to lease the building (still owned by the Martha's proprietor) to open a largely take-out pizza business, apparently to be called Neighboorhood Pie. The big stumbling block was parking, of which the site has very little. There was a lot of back and forth on that issue, and the board suggested he make some new plans and come back later, which he did, rounding up a parking lease arrangement with a nearby church (which had no issues since the restaurant would not be open Sunday, and would not sell alcohol). There were a few minor issues with neighboring residents, but those were all ironed out, and the board gave the goahead in Sept 2008.

For whatever reason however, the restaurant never happened, and from the appearance of the interior, never even got to the "starting refit" stage. The property is currently up for lease once again, and apparently the owner is willing for the building to come down if necessary. That would be a shame as it is rather distinctive with its street-side pillar and vintage canopy.

UPDATE 20 Nov 2010: Commenter Mike identifies the place as originally a Sunshine Cleaners which makes sense given its resemblance to the one on Covenant. I've upadated the post title.

I've written about this spot on Devine Street in the Momo's, Half Moon, Za's plaza two other times, first for Al-Amir, and then for Saffron. Curiously, all three were middle-eastern restaurants.

I liked Al-Amir (which is still around at 3 other locations), never got around to Saffron and generally liked Tabouli though from time-to-time it had some rough edges. It was a little variable, and over the last few months they made some odd choices -- for instance, their namesake salad used to be served on a flat elliptical plate with a nice slice of leaf lettuce on top and a lemon wedge for squeezing, but the last few times I got it, it was glopped into a cereal bowl with no lettuce or lemon. I do have to say that the last time I went there, in late September, I had the feeling that there was some kind of staffing problem ongoing in the kitchen and there seemed to be a lot of to-and-froing to produce a plate of falafel. That said, it was a nice place for long lunches on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. (And often, the owner, or manager perhaps, would take a personal interest and offer a free sample of something or bring out hot tea).

I'm not exactly sure when they closed. As I said above, they were open in late September, but I noticed the place dark Thursday night when I stopped by Za's. As it was fairly early in the evening, I suspected the worst, and going back at prime-time Friday confirmed it. There's no note of any kind on the door, but calling the phone number gives a "this number has been temporarily disconnected" message. Perhaps the "temporarily" is some sign for hope, but in that case I would have expected a explanatory note on the door...

UPDATE 19 September 2011 -- Well, I didn't see this one coming! Al Amir is to return to this spot: