Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

According to ColaDaily, corporate is reluctant to declare this location gone for good, but everybody else agrees that it is another permanent casualty of the COVID-19 crisis.

I believe I have only eaten at this IHOP once. As I mentioned in my closing for the Assembly Street location, I started having constant issues at the downtown store after the rebuild, so one late night I drove out to Lexington instead. I found it a much more pleasant experience, but the distance involved meant I did not do it again.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I have written about Pier 1 Imports before and don't have much to say about this store. I think I was inside once some ten years or so ago. The whole chain is in bankruptcy now and all the stores are shutting. Wikipedia says they are still hoping for a buyer to keep the online side of the brand alive, but to me that seems like a longshot.

Commenter ED pointed out this COVID related closing saying:

it is doubtful it is a location you would stumble upon

and that is definitely true. This place is way past The Flight Deck on Old Chapin Road on a peninsula in Lake Murray on the way to what looks to be a private island. The area is rural and quite nice looking to me.

I really like the wood paneling in this building too.

(Hat tip to commenter Ed)

Well, here's another casualty of COVID-19.

ColaDaily reports that both the Assembly Street and Lexington IHOPs will not be reopening after closing for the crisis.

This site last featured here when the old classic-look store was torn down and rebuilt in 2013. I confess that I had given up on this location well before the closure in March. I have always appreciated IHOP as a good late-night place for comfort food, and I really like the Harvest Grain & Nut Pancakes. However, it seemed to me that every time I went here after the rebuild, I had some kind of issue. Either I couldn't get seated, or couldn't get waited on, or couldn't get anyone to take my money on the way out. Then there was the time the restaurant was full and apparently only one one kitchen staffer had shown up. I have had much better luck on Two Notch, but they are not open late, so my midnight runs seem to end up at Applebee's these days (well, "these days" before the current unpleasantness).

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

Due to scheduling issues of one sort and another, I did not get to Brookgreen Gardens Nights of 1000 Candles in 2019, so I was looking forward to seeing the Bruce Munro Southern Light installation this Spring. Well, then there was, of course, COVID-19, and that was put on hold for a while.

Now however, the display is up and running, and I found a chance to take it in on 6 June 2020. It was one of those unseasonably cool nights we have had this Spring, so the bugs were down, but it was still very comfortable, and there was also a beautiful full moon to go with the lights. My favorite part was towards the last of this set of pictures, a profusion of small color-changing bulbs on stalks planted across one of the more open and less sculpture-studded sections of the gardens. I felt as though I could probably have sat out there for some hours, but as the display closes at 11pm, I had to move on out before I was quite ready.

The exhibition runs from 8pm-11pm through September, so if you are in the area, it's well worth checking out.

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Google tags this spot as "temporarily closed", but there is a real estate sign in front now, so my guess is they closed during the initial stages of COVID-19 and were not able to hang on until the reopening of barber shops and salons a few weeks ago.

Looking for this address also turns up a LoopNet page which reveals it was also formerly a Chiropractor's office.

Copper River Grill in Harbison is another casualty of the COVID-19 crisis, though it has featured here before in the comments as an example of a place that had gone downhill, and the recent Yelp reviews are not stellar.

Cola Daily has the story on the closing here.

I only visited Copper River Grill once, years ago. I had heard it was a good place for late night pizza, so I hit it around midnight one evening. My memory is that the pizza was OK, nothing special, and that it was quite hard to get my drink refilled. In any event, I never went back.

I do like the entrance-way though.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I was shooting against the light, and didn't really have time to get out, so these aren't great shots, but the Wild Wing Cafe in Columbiana Station on Bower Parkway is closed due (mostly) to the COVID-19 crisis.

I say "mostly", because looking at the Yelp reviews, this place was pretty clearly on its last legs, and you have to feel kind of sorry for the corporate rep who had to comment on the 1-star reviews with apologies. Curiously, the Copper River Grill in the same shopping center (and which will soon feature here) had similiar reviews, and the spot there which was most recently (I think!) HuHot Mongolian Grill has been a revolving door for years. For some reason, restaurants don't seem to do well here..

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

Footaction was on the lower level of Columbia Mall at the foot of the winding staircase, underneath the old Lowery Organs location, across from the former Radio Shack and adjacent to the former JC Penny.

According to their door sign, Footaction had initially closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but rolled that into a permanent closure at some point, and they have already stripped the store. As reported by commenter Rashaad, the other Footlocker brands have also left the mall, and will probably feature here in due course.

As an aside, social distancing is not an issue at Columbia Mall:

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad)

Commenter Lone Wolf notes this Free Times story on the closing of State Street upstairs loft location of The Cigar Box, which sounds like it was a bar as well as a cigar lounge. They had only moved to this location last September, and as you would expect COVID-19 was a factor.

Commenter Heath noted their move last year, and this Free Times story about it, but I never got around to doing a closing on the stores on Main & Rosewood. I do have some pictures of the wooden fox mural from the Rosewood store that hopefully I will get up sometime.

(Hat tip to commenter Lone Wolf)