Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Somehow after all these years, I've never made it into a Piggie Park. Probably because I convinced myself at an early age that I didn't like barbecue (I've revised my opinion a bit), and didn't really realize they had other Southern items.

The State says the property is to become a car dealership. I would guess used cars.

The Clemson Road and Dentsville locations remain open.

(Hat tip to commenter Harry etc)

UPDATE 22 September 2020: Updating tags, adding map icon.

I was unaware of this little country-cooking restaurant a bit behind the old Piggly-Wiggly on US-1. The street, Oak Drive, doesn't look like the kind of place that would have any businesses, but there it is.

The door sign cites tax issues and has a postscript suggesting the place will re-open.

(Hat tip to commenter Arthur)

I was unaware of this place, and indeed that Sparkleberry actually had a north-of-two-notch section until commenter JohnBom mentioned it. It appears that at this point, the Sparkleberry Big T location is closed and well on the way to becoming Spring Valley Convenience Store. Indeed, the non-perishables are already being moved in.

Big T has a second location on Garners Ferry, which is still in operation.

As an aside, I note that sometime in the 80s, a really good sign salesman must have worked the Northeast: You see this style of sign up and down Two Notch from east of Rabon to Pontiac..

(Hat tip to commenter JohnBom)

The Southern Belly (whose sign I originally misread as "The Southern Belle") was the follow-on operation to The Rolling Stone at this Rosewood lot near the Fairgrounds which has been home to many bars and restaurants. I see, in fact, that they never got around to completely removing the Rolling Stone signage, which wasn't essential as I understand the ownership was the same.

At some point around 2015, they moved shop to 819 Harden Street, the former site of Mucho Maragaritas, San Jose, Sizzle and many others over the years:

Personally, I believe I like the Rosewood spot better, at least for parking.

UPDATE 15 February 2017 -- According to commenter Justin, this was not a move as I indicate above, but they ran the Harden Street location (and a Colonial Life location) in parallel with this one and only recently closed this branch. I've taken "moved" off the post title and put a better guess at the timeframe.

UPDATE 11 July 2018 -- Now Peebles Wing Shack:

Not sure exactly when this Blythewood barbecue joint closed, but I don't see any reviews later than 2011. The building is now a restaurant and catering operation called Eve's Southern Gourmet.

(Hat tip to commenter CH Smoot)

UPDATE 6 January 2016: Commenter Beth notes that Eve's is now also closed (though she still caters) so I have added that to the post title, along with Meyers as noted by commenter Mr. BO.

I have only eaten at any Sonny's once, and this was the one. For some reason, several years ago when we were staying in Fernandina, nothing would do for my niece but that she have some corn on the cob. My memory is a bit hazy, but I think she had been quite kid-finicky in restaurants on the trip and it was a chance to get her to actually eat something if we could find a place. In the event, it seemed that Sonny's was the only game in town for supper corn that evening, and we hied thither. I'm finicky myself so I had the salad bar, which was pretty good, and my niece did get, and eat, her corn, so all was well.

I know I would have noticed if the place, past Sadler Road on the way to the bridge, had been closed during my last trip in October 2014, and Tipadvisor page and pictures suggests the place probably closed in December of that year.

I passed many other Sonny's locations in my most recent Florida trip, so apparently the chain as a whole is doing OK.

I was not aware of this Palmetto Pig location before commenter Beth pointed out that it had closed.

AJ AMick Road is off of US-76 in Ballantine, across the street from the local Food Lion. I'm not exactly when they closed, I take it that it was a recent surprise to Beth, but the place has been closed long enough for all the Palmetto Pig signage to be taken down and for the interior to be stripped.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

UPDATE 24 September 2013: Commenter Mike R. puts the closing at 1 September 2013, so I have updated the post title to reflect that.

Here's a little barbecue joint (and live venue apparently) in between Andrews & Georgetown on US-521 west of US-17Alt.

It looks as though there were some attempt to rebrand it after Little PaPa's closed.

The pig does not appear to have fully grasped the gravity of his situation..

Once upon a time, this building was The Whale's Tail and then Rubino's Italian Restaurant. More recently it has been the second location for Alpine Road's Little Pigs Barbeque -- in fact, after the Alpine Road store caught fire, and before it was repaired, this was the flagship location, though it's hard to imagine a place further away from Alpine Road but still "in the Columbia area".

The building does not seem to be up for sale, and is still furnished, so perhaps the owners have plans to re-open, or open a different restaurant here.

(Hat tip to commenter Nobody).

UPDATE 17 June 2013 -- Cletus' Roadside Grille is now operating in this building (and has been for a while):

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)

Read the rest of this entry »