Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Taste of China Hut had two Columbia locations after the one on Rosewood closed, this one at Main & Confederate, and another at 2233 Decker Boulevard. As far as I am aware, the Decker location is still open, but I'll try to remember to check it out.

I'm not a big fan of Chinese food and had never really noticed this building (which was clearly some other fast food franchaise in the beginning), but I have to say I really like the laughing Buddha.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I never really associated Kenny Rogers with food (well, except maybe "four hungry children & a crop in the field"..), but according to my sister, the chicken at his Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurants was excellent. And, in fact, from what I can tell from this Wikipedia article, there was a Seinfeld episode based around that fact.

The article is quite vague about what happened to the chain. At one point they were doing well, having just bought out a troublesome competitor and gone public with over 1000 restaurants, and a few sentences later they are in Chapter 11. Today, apparently almost all the stores are in Asia.

The Chapter 11 came in 1998, but the Harbison store was already a Bojangles at that point, so I'm just leaving the closing date as mid 1990s.

You've got to know when to fold 'em..

I first knew this place as Al Amir.

After that closed, a bar called Stingers set up shop, and I totally missed the fact that it had closed until *its* follow-on operation, Marinoni's had also closed.

Actually it may not be strictly accurate to say that Stingers closed. According to this Free Times story, the same owner ran both restaurants, so it's more accurate to say that Stingers transitioned into Marinoni's. Unfortunately, I never got to either, and I have to say the pizza described in The Free Times sounds really good.

IrmoJeff had a bit more to say about Stingers here.

(Hat tips to commenters IrmoJeff & Jonathan)

This building just north of I-20 at the corner of Fairfield & Sharpe Roads has apparently been quite a number of things according to google, though mostly iterations of bar/restaurant and grocery. Brown's was the last tenant, or at least anyone after them never repainted, but I cannot find any active listing in my 1997 or 2007-2012 phonebooks, so I'm just leaving the closing date as "2000s".

The lot is a little bit overgrown, but the building still seems to be in pretty good shape. It wouldn't surprise me for somebody else to give it a go here.

This Cayce home cooking restaurant was at the corner of State & Jansen Streets, right across from Brookland Cayce High School, and right next to the old radio station studio. As you can tell, these pictures were taken on a very grey and gloomy day, otherwise the old brick building would look much more inviting.

I know for a while they advertised themselves online as either the follow-on or alternative operation to the old Southern Skillet when that restaurant closed.

In the event I had never heard of them until quite recently, and never got around to checking them out until it was too late.

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

Last year, a work friend of mine and her husband were driving from DC to Florida with a sidetrip to Clemson, and would be coming through Columbia on I-26. She suggested we meet for lunch, and wanting to give her a fairly straight shot off of and onto the Interstate, I suggested Al Amir on Saint Andrews road with Harbison as the connector.

"You can't miss it," I told them, "the restaurant is kind of below street level, but just go to the strip mall with the coffee kiosk in the front of the parking lot!"

The punchline is, of course, that when I got out there to meet them, I saw the kisok was gone, and they confirmed when they finally got there that they had had a Dickens of a time with my directions, and that point in particular...

Now, the kiosk, or another similar one under the name of Loveland Coffee, is coming back.

I may well buy a cup there -- but I don't think I'll include it in my directions!

I've driven by Jamestown Coffee Company a good many times on my way to Pizzeria Uno, but on my way there, it would be a bad time to stop because I was about to have a meal, and on my way back, it would be closed.

Now they have moved from their Lexington-ish location to downtown Columbia. As story in The State details, they have reopened inside Cromer's on Huger Street.

The story mentions losing their lease as the precipitate cause, but you have to wonder if the drive-through espresso kiosk across the street wasn't a factor as well.

(Hat tip to commenters Andy & Matt)

UPDATE 16 October 2013 -- The old location of Jamestown Coffee is now Tropical Smoothie Cafe:

Here's another Columbia area Burger King getting a facelift.

This King used to be a regular Sunday lunch destination for our family. I particularly recall going there during the odd "Buy a burger, get a Neiman" promotion BK had during the 1970s. The location on the corner of Two Notch and Toronto gave the store a "sneak up" route which consisted of turning onto Dubard from Beltline and then onto Toronto, a route we kids always insisted our parents follow. Or I did, at least. Later we "moved up" to Quincy's for Sunday dinner, and I have hardly set foot in a Burger King in years.

UPDATE 15 January 2013 -- As of the evening of 14 January, this place was open again:

This is another former Shoney's which has been converted into a Lizard's Thicket.

I'm a little hazy about the time period, but it was still open in the 1976 phonebook, and closed in the 1985 one, so I'm going with "1970s".

Our preferred Shoney's location was the Two Notch one, but we did go to this one from time to time. For most of that period, it was still Big Boy affiliated, and we always got the "Big Boy & Dolly" promotional comics, and if we were lucky, the "Hot Fudge Cake". Mmm!

UPDATE 10 September 2020: Update tags, add map icon.

Given that the San Jose Mexican restaurants are still around, I suspect their supply operation has moved rather than closed, but I noticed this warehouse for sale in an industrial park off of Bluff Road the other day (the park is where you see that huge flag flying on the side of I-77).