Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed this empty storefront in the Cantina 76 building driving by on Christmas Eve. A bit of googling established that by that date, the spa had been gone for over a year. They have moved towards Five Points to 2901 Divine, right next to Publick House.

I believe the next most recent tenant in this spot was Hardcore Tennis and before that it may have been Ben & Jerry's. (A chain which surprisingly still has yet to come back to Columbia).

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I first noticed that the Camp Bow Wow dog boarding & play center was selling their building on Taylor just a bit past Harden several years ago, but apparently at the time they did not find a satisfactory buyer, as the For Sale signs came down. Recently, I noticed that the "Camp Bow Wow" signage was down, and that they have relocated to 655 Superior Street.

If I find the pictures with the signage still up, I will post them. In the meanwhile, if the building did sell, there is currently no indication as to what is coming in.

This storefront on Patterson off of Garners Ferry has been a number of things over the years, including Peppers House Of Pizza, Ye Old Fashioned Ice Cream & Sandwich Shop, Anthony's Old Fashioned Burger & Fry Co, and possibly Ma's House of Pizza.

Mobay 2 seems to be getting some good Yelp reviews, but is currently closed for renovations. Hopefully they will come back soon.

There is a beachwear store in Surfside Beach that has been Going Out Of Business since about 1985, and it seems sex-toy store Taboo in the former Taco Bell on Devine Street has been promising the same for almost as long. In fact, the closing signs have gone up two or three times before this latest, seemingly final, iteration.

I have a certain amount of sympathy given that the store originally complied with the city's intentionally difficult siting rules to open only to have them changed to specifically target Taboo -- something the store fought all the way to the Supreme Court.

Here is my 2014 false-alarm Closing for the store, followed here by another 2018 false-alarm. Here is a WIS story from 2016 touting the imminent closing, and this State story from December 2019 apparently finally calls it correctly.

UPDATE 21 June 2021 -- Razed:

Update 2 February 2023 -- Clutch Coffee is now open here in a new building:

Well, this is an unpleasant surprise!

I had been going to Pastaria 811 since they opened in the Litchfield Exchange (replacing some sort of deli) back in the 90s. Actually I would have guessed it was longer ago than that, but their sign claims 25 years so..

They had the second best pizza in South Carolina, great bread, and good general Italian dishes. They moved to this, more visible, location several years ago after Austin's closed up shop, and always seemed to be doing a good business as far as I could tell. I think I was last there in early August, and had the usual good experience.

We tried to go by last week, and found it closed, but thought Well, the holidays.. as there was no indication of a permanent closure, but looking it up online found the website gone, and reports on Yelp that the place was no more.

As you can see, there are still no visible indications. The celebratory 25 years banner is still up, there is no sign on the door, and the rockers are still on the porch. The windows are so heavily tinted that I could not see inside, so I'm not sure what the status of the interior is.

Daggone it.

Merry Christmas Columbia!