Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's another case where a phonebook search turns up no information, but I'd guess Latimer Seafood has been gone for at least several years. The place was obviously started life as a service station, but the architecture isn't bringing any particular brand to mind for me.

Dave's is a longtime Two Notch fixture not far past Covenant Road as you head into the city. I had noticed it often over the years, but it hit me lately that I couldn't recall seeing anyone there over the last few months when I would drive home from downtown at night, and indeed it does seem to be closed.

This review makes it sound like a pleasant low-key kind of place -- rather old school in fact, with live music by a "Drifters" alum.

Tainos was a Caribbean restaurant in a Broad River Road building perhaps most notable for having been the original Lizard's Thicket. It's certainly been quite a number of things since then, though Tainos seems to have brought lizards back to the building.

The story told by the door notices is rather distressing, though of course it is told from the restaurant's point of view. Certainly it seems to have been a nasty surprise.

(Hat tip to commenter Soxinsc)

I haven't eaten here too often, but it was fine the times I did, and it has certainly managed to outlast most of the other restaurants in the Sparkleberry Crossing development, so I'm a little curious about what's going on at the San Jose on Sparkleberry Lane. I take it that the place will reopen after the facade work currently in progress, but I'm puzzled as to why it's being done in the first place. As I recall it, the building looked nice enough, and rather southwestern, with its stucco exterior. I can't see that adding bricks over that will improve things (though from the work around the side windows, it will still have a bit of southwestern flair), and it certainly can't be cheap.

UPDATE 13 December 2012: Updated the closing date from "December 2012" to "October 2012" based on commenter Sidney's info.

UPDATE 25 January 2023: I had completely forgotten I had already made this post, so when the restaurant was closed in early 2023, I made a new post. I am deleting that one, and putting it below:

Google shows this restaurant as Temporarily Closed, but looking at the signage, I see no indication that it is closed at all, much less a "We'll be back soon" sign.

It *is* definitely closed though, and I could not get a good view inside to say if the fixtures are still there. WIS says there was a fire here in May of 2022, but I see reviews from after that, so I don't believe that is a factor.

UPDATE 7 June 2024 -- Open again:

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!