Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This Dairy Queen replaced the old Hardee's and opened during the Pandemic of 2020 when people were desperate to get out of the house somehow, whether they could go inside and eat or not: During the opening weeks, the line of cars would be backed up on US-17 for half a block.

After that, things settled down, but from my observation the place seemed to do a decent business, making me think the closing may have more to do with the chain's ongoing issues than anything with this particular store.

I was a little bemused during my walk-around to see Dennis The Menace surfing on a mural. Dennis was the chain's spokeskid during the 70s, and one radio commercial of Dennis and his pal Joey talking gave me a (probably annoying) catch-phrase to throw into conversations: Yeah, Joey: Like a super-brazier chilli-dog! I had thought Dennis & Dairy Queen had parted ways years ago, but I guess not.

Here is a very brief news note on the closing. As of early 2025 there is no activity with the building.

This Dairy Queen was located inside a Circle K, and apparently closed down in May of 2024. Looking at the Google reviews is amusing since they still have a bot account posting AI replies to reviews, going approximately like:

Reviewer: This place is shut down!
Bot: We're sorry we didn't delight, please give us another try!

(Hat tip to commenter Jessee)

I noticed on my last trip to Fernandina, that this old-school Dairy Queen on historic Florida Route A1A, just off of I-95 in Yulee Florida was closed. (You can see it, poorly, in operation in the first shot).

If I had to guess a cause, it would be the interminable road construction on this stretch of A1A, which has made this parking lot almost inaccessible, especially if west bound. Of course the walk-up design has its drawbacks as well: One review advises eating in your car to avoid the no-see-ums.

For now the nearby produce & souvenir stand is holding on despite the acess problems. I would be sad to see that go, as it has been there forever, and always has good citrus & candies.

UPDATE 12 June 2024: Update tags.

I was driving down Fairfield Road when this building next to the Food Lion caught my eye. It looked very much like a number of the old-school Dairy Queen buildings in town.

Sure enough the ad (reposted above) lists a Fairfield Road location. The only slight difficulty is that it gives the address as 5104 Fairfield Road while the current address (written in quite large letters) for the building is 5102 Fairfield Road. I pretty sure there has been a minor renumbering at some point over the last 40 years.

Googling for the new address turns up a large number of tenants at the building since it was a DQ. The only one I might have ever heard of is the camera repair operation, and if so it was so long ago that I can't be sure.

UPDATE 10 February 2025 -- Now purple:

Also adding map icon and tags.