Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I never went to Bove as my impression of it was always that it was too tony a spot for me to be a regular. It was the type of place that had named chefs and a deep wine selection.

Some time last year, it occurred to me that I never saw any cars there, and I stopped to take a look. There was no indication whatsoever that the place was closed, in fact there was what seemed to be a unique-for-the-day menu posted on the door and all the fixtures were in place. However, that menu never changed, and now that I was paying attention, there were no cars ever.

Bove was on US-17 in Pawleys Island, just north of the Sonic and south of the new Fresh Market. A few miles north on 17 in Litchfield Beach is an office complex and small mall called The Exchange.

My memory is that The Exchange was built in the late 1970s or early 1980s as a very upscale place. I particularly remember that on the north side of the gallery, just above where the tourism office now is (if indeed *that* is still there..) there was a specialty cheese shop, with all sorts of exotic cheeses that you could not (then) find in a typical grocery. There were also jewelers and upscale clothing botiques as well as some art galleries. Well -- it was simply a place that the Grand Strand was not ready for. First, I doubt they truly realized how seasonal the market was -- just because things looked good in June and July didn't mean that you would see customer-one in October, and second, that's not the kind of crowd that came to the beach in those days. Certainly now there are a bunch of well off retirees, but people toting a load of kids to the beach and Pavilion weren't going to have the time or inclination to peruse fancy cheeses -- essentially what happened is that every original tenant went bust over a very short period of time.

The second incarnation of the place was as an art mall. There were several galleries, one of which was very good and stayed many years and others which came and went. There were also spaces for painting classes and exibits and a couple of artist studios.

During this phase one of the long term tenants, The Coffee & Chocolate House opened. I never could understand how they subsisted on the meager foot traffic, but finally decided that mostly the place was a work area for their catering which seemed to carry them (and as far as I know they are still there).

The other long term non-art tenant was Pastaria 811. They were in a back slot which had originally (during the inital incarnation of The Exchange) been some sort of deli, and were a very good Italian restaurant. In fact, I would say they have the best bread on the Grand Strand, and one of the best pizzas in South Carolina (curiously, the other best pizza in SC is now less than a mile removed). In addition, the salads and pasta dishes like "stuffed shells" were quite good as well.

I should probably have tried to cut down the number of pictures of the place that are below after the break, but I'm a little sentimental about it as I ate there with both my mother and father.

As the years passed I ate there less frequently because my hours gradually shifted to the point I would go out to lunch at 3:00, and the Pastaria is one of those places that closes between lunch (ends at 2:30) and dinner (starts at 4:00), but still I would catch pizza there every now and then.

A year or two ago they did a major expansion, opening a new dining room area in what had been part of the Chocolate & Coffee House space (in the meantime, the good art gallery had moved in with the Coffee house), so I was very surprised, after they went to that expense, to hear that they were moving. I can only figure that 1) The Exchange was continuing to implode and they feared for its future stability and 2) The opportunity to get a building directly on US-17 that was already outfitted as a restaurant was too good a deal to pass up.

At any rate, they started moving into the old Bove space in January, and are now up and running. I went by recently, and the bread, stuffed shells and pizza are just as good from the new kitchen as the old.

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Tony O's Pizza is the follow-on operation to Steak Out, in a little building next to the Waffle House (and in front of Cussin' Bill's) just west of the I-26/Saint Andrews Road interchange.

I had noticed some time late last year that it was a Friday or Saturday night, prime pizza time, and the place didn't seem to be open. I wasn't totally sure as it was rather late. Even stopping by didn't settle matters, since as far as I could tell, everything inside was ready-to-go and there was no posted sign. The fact that the door was chain locked seemed unusual, but not conclusive.

Finally I stopped by one night and there was a sign on the door indicating an emergency and that the place would re-open in early March. I certainly hope everybody is OK, but it seems clear now that at the least, the place is closed for an extended period (though the sign is now gone).

UPDATE 19 May 2012 -- As commenter Andrew notes, the signs for Tony O's have now been taken off the building, so I'm taking "temporary?" off the post title:

UPDATE 23 June 2012 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is to be another Nick's, and the "coming soon" sign is already up:

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- Work continues on Nick's:

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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.