Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As mentioned several times in Have Your Say, the Burger King at Columbiana Mall is closed "temporarily". There's not any explanation on the sign making that claim, and apparently it has been several months. Ordinarily after such a length of time, I might write off the sign as wishful thinking, but in this case the equipment clearly has not been stripped, so who knows.

Almost as soon as I got inside to take this picture, somebody pulled the fire alarm, and everybody headed for the exits.

(Hat tip to commenter Deb)

UPDATE 9 October 2017 -- As mentioned in the comments this spot is setting up to be an American Deli so I'm taking the "temporary" off the post title:

UPDATE 6 February 2019: Change the location from "Columbiana Mall" to "Columbiana Centre". Add location icon.

This Burger King, between Roper Pond and the defunct bank on Trenholm Road, is the latest Columbia BK to close down for remodeling. They seem to be cranking through these upfits pretty expeditiously, so I wouldn't expect it to be closed for more than a month or so.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

UPDATE 11 June 2013 -- Open again!

UDATE 22 April 2014: Changed the post title to add "open again".

Well, I thought I ought to get these pictures up before they acutally finish the remodeling and have the store open again!

Anyway, this is another Columbia area Burger King being upfitted, and the operation is fairly well along by now. This store is at the the intersection of Bush River Road with I-20, and sits next to Cracker Barrel and not far from Hamrick's. As you can see from the main sign, hiring for the reopening has already commenced.

(Noted by many folks, but I think the initial Hat Tip goes to commenter Homer)

While I agree in theory that flame cooking burgers the way Burger King (and now Cookout) does is superior to griddle-frying them, for some reason that has never actually translated into my liking BK, or at least hasn't since I was in middle school or so. Perhaps I should give them another try as its been probably twenty years or so since I've had a burger there. At any rate, that won't be an option at this store on Sunset Boulevard by the Waffle House and I-26. Unlike the many remodeling BKs in Columbia, this one seems gone for good.

(Hat tip to commenter William)

UPDATE 15 June 2020 -- Now a Denny's:

Here's another Columbia area Burger King getting a facelift.

This King used to be a regular Sunday lunch destination for our family. I particularly recall going there during the odd "Buy a burger, get a Neiman" promotion BK had during the 1970s. The location on the corner of Two Notch and Toronto gave the store a "sneak up" route which consisted of turning onto Dubard from Beltline and then onto Toronto, a route we kids always insisted our parents follow. Or I did, at least. Later we "moved up" to Quincy's for Sunday dinner, and I have hardly set foot in a Burger King in years.

UPDATE 15 January 2013 -- As of the evening of 14 January, this place was open again:

Like the Burger King at North Main & Sunset, this Two Notch Road King (next to the Post Office) is remodeling, and is closed while that takes place.

The influx of new burger chains to Columbia seems to have sparked a good deal of revamping at McDonald's and Burger King.

(Hat tip to commenter Javier)

UPDATE 5 December 2012 -- Open again!

Here at the corner of North Main & Sunset Drive is another Columbia area Burger King not serving hamburgers.

However in this case, unlike many cases where a "remodeling" sign is more a fond wish than a hard fact, I think we can expect this store to be back in business before too long as there is actual work underway inside and out.

Heck, even the french fries are being remodeled!

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 8 March 2012 -- Repainting has started:

UPDATE 24 October 2012: I've got some pix somewhere, but I shouldn't wait to find them to say that this Burger King is done remodeling and is open again.

This has already been discussed a good bit on Have Your Say, but:

Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce.. Looks like another Columbia Burger King has closed shop. This one was on Devine Street, just before it intersects in a triangle with Fort Jackson Boulevard and Cross Hill Road. It's certainly a less tony section than the bulk of Devine, and a number of businesses have come and gone in the general area over the years. It is, however, also just across from where the upscale Whole Foods will be going into the former Family Mart / Kroger, so it will be interesting to see what eventually ends up here. Or, it could just be those poor registers saying "Cannot Locate Fileserver" for years..

(Hat tip to commenter Frank)

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Before the Burger King was built, this lot, on Trenholm Road near Dent Middle School was once a go-kart track. It was a pretty loud and noisy business for a rather staid street, and you have to wonder how Arcadia Lakes and the other businesses in the area felt about it. On the other hand, I can't actually ever remember seeing any of the cars in motion. They were there for a number of years, and must have had customers, but I can only recall driving by and seeing the track and karts, not hearing anything or seeing any races in progress..

I wouldn't have minded going myself, but at the tme, I was perpetually broke, and while riding the karts would have been fun, picking up the latest Perry Rhodan space opera at Capitol Newsstand was a lot higher on my expense priority list.

After the go-kart track closed, the main building was used for another several years as a "Pet Vac" center. I always assumed that to be "pet vaccination", but I suppose it could have been for hoovering up dusty cats instead -- I never went in to see either way.

After the Burger King was built, it closed down for a long time due to a dispute between the local franchise owner and Burger King Corporate. In fact, all Columbia area BKs were shut down during that time, and some of them never came back.