Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Cabo Fresh Taco, on Sumter Street near the hospital and in between Quiznos Sub and The Palmetto Sandwich Shop is gone. I never was really aware that it was there, or I might have stopped by though I very rarely eat downtown.

The replacement operation is already in place, Anthony's Past Time Cafe which I presume is connected with Anthony's Dairy Bar on Two Notch.

(Hat tip to commenter Payne)

UPDATE 2 June 2020: Anthony's closed and rebranded as Massey's some time ago, then Massey's also closed. Rather than put the Anthony's closing on the Massey's closing page, or making a separate page, I will put it here because the pictures here already show it. So I am adding Anthony's to the post title.

Noticed Monday night as I was coming out of Carrabba's that Fruiti Cup frozen yogurt in Sparkleberry Square was gone. Well, actually that's not quite accurate because I never knew it was there first, and I couldn't completely tell if it were going out or coming in. A little googling established it though, and puts the date sometime after 3 August.

This spot was originally, or at least previously Ritz Camera, and this closing adds one more to Sparkleberry Square's list.

UPDATE 12 September 2011 -- Some daylight pix:

UPDATE 17 April 2012 -- Looks like it's to be Dickey's Barbecue Pit restaurant:

UPDATE 29 June 2012 -- As commenter Andrew mentions below, Dickey's is now open:

San Jose is probably the biggest local Mexican chain (though they don't all have the same ownership), and one I like pretty well. I never made it to this smaller location on Sunset not far from the zoo, and in fact am pretty sure I did not know that it was there. Commenter MB notes that it wasn't there too long. I have to say Sunset Center has a good-looking ice cream cone on their sign!

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

Well, I suppose it wasn't too surprising that after S & S closed at Richland Mall and Piccadilly closed at Dutch Square, Piccadilly closed at Columbia Mall sometime early this month.

It can't have been great being located in-between two dead anchors, Penny's & Dillard's, but I don't think being near Macy's or Sears would have made any difference. I think cafeterias are kind of a dying breed, and you can't compound that by being in a dying mall.

(Hat tip to commenter Bobby G)

The first two pictures above come from a post noting changes in the surrounding plaza that I made last November.

At the time the whole plaza was for sale apparently as a bank forclosure. Since then, the place has been bought by East Point Academy charter school: "The first South Carolina Chinese Immersion Elementary School". (I'm not sure how that kid on their home page really feels about that Panda -- I'm reminded of a South Park episode..). Anyway, as a result, Sandy's and whoever else was still in the plaza had to get out.

Sandy's Facebook page calls this location Cherry Park, which I had never heard before, and notes that "we will open a new location soon", which I take to mean in the same general area.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 5 April 2012 -- The Chinese immersion charter school which took over the whole plaza is now up and running:

UPDATE 22 January 2020: Update tags, add map icon.

If you drove I-95 to Florida in the 90s or 2000s, you could hardly miss the plethora of billboards with the come-on We Bare All dotted up and down the highway. Darien's Cafe Risque may not have out advertised Dillon's South of the Border, but you'd have to be driving in your sleep to be unaware of it -- until recently, that is.

Having not noticed the billboards lately, I decided to check into what had happened to the place on my drive back to Columbia last week.

The building is at Georgia exit 49 off of I-95 (Georgia Highway 251) on the other side of the Interstate from an outlet mall, and like many roadside attractions turns out to be much smaller than you might expect from the massive billboard campaign.

I really arrived too late in the evening to take good pictures, but these flash and longer exposures turned out well enough to show the current state of the place. Interestingly, after a month of being around marsh and woods, this parking lot was the only place I had a real mosquito problem -- the moment I got out of the car, they descended on me en-masse and I was scared I might pass out from blood loss getting these shots :-)

This Florida Times Union (Jacksonville) article tells the story of the end of Cafe Risque, and its beginning. Apparently the owner hoodwinked the town into approving a cafe on the site, and didn't mention the mealtime entertainment he planned to provide, and since there was no alcohol involved, there was little the town could do about it. (The article headline implies the town eventually shut it down, but the text makes clear it was lack of business).

As far as I could tell from I-75 signage, a sister Cafe Risque is still in operation in Micanopy Florida, just below Gainesville.
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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)

While the Queenstown name rather intrigued me, with its New Zealand connection, everything I ever heard about the place led me to believe that it was way too seafood for me. I do seem to remember it getting rather good reviews though, and thus was a little surprised when I drove by a week or two ago and noticed that it was gone. Judging from their sign, the new operation Mayflower Bistro (just given as Mayflower in the phonebook) also seems seafood heavy for my tastes.

Before Queenstown this spot was Fatz Cafe ("Our secret sauce? Mayonaise!") a totally generic or worse place that I have never been able to warm up to despite its SC origins.

This little strip mall, Colonial Villiage across Bush River Road from Dutch Square and on the access road (Colonial Life Boulevard [which used to have a different name, I think]) for I-126 has never really seemed to thrive with about the only constant being the stalwart Melting Pot fondue restaurant.

UPDATE 20 July 2011: Added Garfield's to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 31 August 2020: Update tags, add map icon.

Today's closing comes from commenter IrmoJeff who says:

Hey Ted…Junior Apprentice Closing Spotter, 2nd Class IrmoJeff checking in :D

I thought i’d toss this out there, in case you are ever out towards Irmo/Balentine again. 8027 Broad River Road is the address of a little triangular piece of land that sits at the intersection of Broad River Road and Woodrow Street, sort of just behind where Tez’ used to be. I drove by there the other day, and it looks like whatever business was in there most recently is closed up. I became aware of the building when i was just out of high school in the early 90’s when a friend of a friend opened Smokey Joe’s BBQ. Im not sure what was there previously, but i dont think Smokey Joes was the original occupant. The owner used to joke that he couldnt afford to charge me a flat rate for the all you could eat buffet, that he would have to weigh me going in and coming out :). Anyway after Smokey Joes closed, it was a catering business (or possibly a restaurant) for a while, run by the Catering By Dupre guy i’m pretty sure. I’m also pretty sure Dupre was somehow involved in Smokey Joes, possibly a silent moneyman or something. After that i lost track, but a quick Googling found all these businesses associated with 8027 BRR:

Bill Hinson Auto Sales
Clayton’s Cars
Irmo Properties
Palmetto Glass
Columbia Credit Corp (listed as 8025 BRR)

Im also pretty sure i remember a flower shop, or maybe a gift shop there at one point. I also thought i remembered a car title place there at one point, but i could possibly be confusing it with the Columbia Credit Corp.

I added this pic to clarify which building i was talking about

http://i54.tinypic.com/23izbyu.jpg

I actually did take some pictures of this place in April of 2009 (I know from the date of some other pix from the same day) but appear to have deleted them somehow. As I had no idea what the place had been, I didn't keep good track of them.. I'm pretty sure however that the roof of the building was intact at the time or it would have stayed in my mind. Likewise, the picture that IrmoJeff links above shows the roof intact (but has no EXIF date tag). Given that the roof is currently not intact, I suspect that the incoming Hickory Point convenience store will knock the building down, or at least it doesn't make sense to me to leave a building you hope to salvage open to the rain.

As to the two addresses: The lefthand door is labelled "8025" while the righthand door is labelled "8027". I don't have a guess which address goes with the existing outbuildings.

(Hat tip to IrmoJeff, obviously)

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I normally wouldn't do two Garners Ferry posts in succession (unless I were out of pictures..), but commenter Terry mentioned this place just yesterday (after a spam comment brought it back to the top of the "recent comments" list) saying:

I visited Steve’s on Garners Ferry 3 or 4 times and they had really good sandwiches. Every time I was the only patron in the shop and a lunch crowd of one will not go very far. The parking lot in front of the store is usually packed so I do not know where all the shoppers were.

Well it appears that a lunch crowd of one has gone as far as it could, and the place is now closed. When I first posted about it (in the closing for Larry's) in February 2010, Steve's had taken over two old Larry's locations (that I knew of for sure). Now it appears that both of them have gone under.

More curiously, the sign in the window proclaims "Hibachi Grill Coming Soon" when Mushi Mushi hibachi just a few units down in the same strip closed in September 2010..

UPDATE 3 November 2011 -- Looks like Japan Grill is close to opening:

UPDATE 25 October 2018: Update title with suite info. Add map icon. Update tags.