Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed this vacancy just the other day, though a search through my phonebooks reveals that Color Imaging Solutions Group (quite a mouthful!) has been gone for a good while. I take them to have been a print shop, presumably specializing in color work.

With the closing of the State Farmers' Market (seen in the first picture), Case Plants relocated from there to North Main Street on the former site of Jacob's Automotive Group, and next to the old Varsity Restaurant. It's certainly a good drive from their old location, and that may have made a difference.

(Hat tips to commenters Justin & Matt)

This spot at the corner of Main & Laurel Streets has been a number of things over the years, even over the recent years, perhaps most notably The Elite Epicurean.

I really wasn't aware of Chelsea's, having last written about the place in early 2011 when it had just quit being Club Dreams. Presumably, Chelsea's moved in sometime later in that year.

I'm going to take a flyer and guess it closed around Christmas..

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Jasmine Deli & Cafe was the follow-on operation to Baker Brothers American Deli in the Addesso building at the corner of Main and Blossom. I'm unsure if it was connected with the Jasmine Buffet on Two Notch or not.

At any rate, they have moved out and Uncle Maddio's Pizza Joint is moving in.

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.

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)

As I've mentioned, there was a time in my life when I saw three or four movies a week. After I left college, that dropped way off (though I still did manage to see both The Little Mermaid & The Incredibles upwards of 20 times each).

I think if I had stayed in Columbia, I might have stayed more in the habit -- I would look at the Nickelodeon calendars and see a lot that looked interesting, but having limited time in town rarely got around to it. As it is, I remember seeing two movies in particular here. The first was Gunga Din with Cary Grant. This was a splendid old light-hearted adventure film, and I saw it with my father, who had also seen it when it was first released in 1939. The second was completely different, in fact it was And Now for Something Completely Different, the first Monty Python film (which Wikipedia says is a reshooting of some of their classic sketches, which I did not realize at the time). I'm sure I saw a few other films at The Nick, but I'm a bit blurry on the details now.

Anyway, The Nickelodeon has now moved to the other side of the State House at 1607 Main Street. This is the site of the old Fox theater. I am pretty sure that the last time I was in the Fox was in 1977 to see Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. In fact, I had somehow convinced my mother and sister to go with me, and the film was so awful that they both walked out and shopped what was left of Main Street while I toughed it out to the end. I wonder if The Nick will do a Bakshi retrospective some day..

Well, we've been talking about this today in Have Your Say, but let's make it "official": Houston's Low Country Grill on North Main closed on 2 July.

That makes it the second restaurant that I know of in North Main plaza to close. Restaurants close all the time, this site is full of them, and while it is always a shame when somebody's venture fails and people are out of work, that is just the way things sometimes work out in the normal course of events: People get new jobs, maybe the owners try again later with more success. What makes this closing a bit different is that as I understand it, the city used tax dollars to build North Main Plaza and tax dollars to recruit and subsidize tenants. There's certainly nothing wrong with a business taking the best deal it can find, but perhaps those tax dollars could have been better spent than in offering it.

(Hat tip to commenter Jimmy)

This little space on Main across from the Capitol and next to WOLO has been a number of restaurants, for instance the Cat & Cleaver and The Capitol Cafe (not to be confused with the Capitol Restaurant) -- Then it was *almost* a Dunkin' Donuts.

After Dunkin' fell through, the place was vacant for a while then Fever started a (protracted) setup process, finally opened and rapidly went under.

I have to admit that though the place sounded to be something I might like, I purposely did not check it out as I strongly felt that the owner's role in the Taco Wars was unhelpful. Outcompeting someone -- fine. Trying to use City Hall to shut down a competitor -- not so much. I wonder if other people sharing that sentiment was an element in Fever's demise, or the fact that the last two restaurants there closed as well means that the location is just not that good.

(Hat tip to commenter Payne, and to tonkatoy for the "Taco Wars" link during the Have Your Say discussion)