Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Chocolate Nirvana had the misfortune to choose the exact wrong time to move from their old Richland Street location to Fort Jackson Boulevard beside Gills Creek. In the event, they were devastated by the Great Flood Of 2015, and it now appears that they have given up on the building, which is currently for lease.

Their website leaves room to hope they may be back in another location, but I suspect the flood marks the end of this much repurposed building and would not be surprised to see it knocked down, though I'm not sure anything else could now be built on the lot.

Here's another Great Flood of 2015 casualty.

This little restaurant on the Fort Jackson gate off I-77 has been there under one name or another for years. Originally, it was Saki, then when the current owner, who was working for the former owners, bought it out, he changed the name to Saky. This is what The State had to say:

“Who expected all this rain and the flood?” Sun Suk said as repairs continue on the eatery on Fort Jackson Boulevard at I-77.

The 7,500-square-foot structure housing Saky was damaged by the same flash flood Oct. 4 that inundated homes in the King’s Grant neighborhood.

Saky bore the brunt of the flood on its side of the road.

Two feet of water came inside and a tree fell on part of the restaurant after the bank of a nearby creek eroded in the rush of water.

“I walked in and it was a little wet, so I thought maybe it wasn’t too bad,” Sun said. “Then I went in back and could see the sky from inside of the building, so I knew I had a big problem.”

The first picture is from some years ago, the others from after the flood, though I could not get too close.

Hopefully they will be back soon.

I took a few minutes to walk Crowson Road between Devine and Fort Jackson Boulevard today. I did not attempt to go onto the old Kmart which was rather cordoned off, but work is definitely underway back there. I heard from a waitress at Ruby Tuesday that the pet store unfortunately lost some animals during the flood. Currently none of those stores are open.

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As you know, I don't wish failure on anyone, and certainly the crew at this Cross Hill Market burger joint seemed nice enough and I'm sorry for their jobs, but to be frank, I couldn't figure out how they lasted as long as they did.

I ate here twice, probably about a year apart, the last time in April or May of this year. When I had decided to go, I picked the place because it was a very nice Spring day, and I knew they had patio seating. In the event, by the time I got there, the sky had clouded over, and the temperature had dropped too much for outside seating to be comfortable.

Taking myself inside, I remembered why I had not been back after my first time. The interior was sort of dark and cave-like, not cheery at all, and everything seemed kind of industrial and not homey. In addition, the burgers were quite pricey and I felt like I was paying Red Robin type table service prices for counter service. And while there was certainly nothing wrong with the burgers, I would not count them in the running for Columbia's best. Also, given the location, I wondered after both times why I hadn't just gone to Smash Burger across the street, something I'm guessing a lot of people did.

(Hat tip to commenter Elizabeth)

UPDATE 30 January 2016 -- As commenter MrBO notes, Midwood Smokehouse is now open in this spot:

There's already been a good bit of discussion on this in Have Your Say but Utopia Food & Spirits, a local music venue and restaurant across from Cross Hill Market, has closed after suffering extensive electrical damage on 20 June.

Although I posted about their move from Rosewood to this location, I'm afraid the place was not really on my radar, but they seem to have been doing good work providing a showcase for local bands. Unfortunately repairing all the damage was just too expensive given the current economy.

The Free Times has the story here.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Utopia in the old Doc's Gumbo Grille location on Rosewood has moved to 4330 Fort Jackson Boulevard, the old Pizza King location across from LaBrasca's.

According to their Kickstarter for moving info, they lost their lease here, which suggests that something new will be going in fairly quickly. The place has seen something of a revolving door set of restaurants since long term tenant Keg O'Nails moved out.

(Hat tip to commenter Travis)

Update 11 August 2014 -- Here is the new location:

And I forget just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile

I think a chocolate Nirvana would definitely be my favorite kind, and Columbia's is moving from Richland Street near Bull to the much tenanted former Jesudi's location on Fort Jackson Boulevard, most recently home to Sammiches.

It hasn't been a hospitable spot for regular restaurants recently, perhaps a bakery concept will do better.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

(I see a lot of folks from Facebook stopping by this page today. If you like this kind of stuff, go to the Alphabetical Closings page for lots more defunct Columbiana -- Ted 28 Feb 2014)

24 December 2013:

15 January 2014:

27 February 2014:

Well, that didn't last too long, I'm afraid. Sammiches was the follow-on operation to The Diner in the old Jesudi's building across from the Kmart. They opened in January 2014 and closed after about a month.

I only stopped by once, and I'm afraid I wasn't too impressed. First, I was expecting.. sammiches, and there were actually very few on the menu (and not ones I would normally go for) and second, the place was freezing. I had my sweater and my windbreaker the one buttoned and the other fully zipped up and I was still cold. The menu was some stapled laser-printed sheets, and I was the only one in the building. I had the feeling at the time (early Feb) that the place was not long for the world.

After commenter CayceKid mentioned that the place seemed closed, I rode by this afternoon (27 Feb) and there was a U-Haul van in front and the place was obviously being stripped -- something a look inside later in the evening confirmed.

(Hat tip to commenter CayceKid)

As reported by commenter Mike, The Diner on Fort Jackson Boulevard just behind the new Whole Foods is closed for "renovations". I believe this place has been open for a bit over a year and a half, launching in January 2012 in the old Jesudi's etc location.

Given that they did extensive renovations on the place before opening, it's hard to imagine what needs upgrading now. While I certainly hope it is not the case here, it seems to me that more than half the times a restaurant closes for "renovations", that turns out to be more of a hope than a plan, and the closure becomes permanent.

UPDATE 24 October 2013 -- Well, looks like that's it for The Diner:

I've taken the "remodeling" tag off the subject line.

This Kmart, accessible from Fort Jackson Boulevard, Devine Street, Crowson Road and Wildcat Road has been there for my entire, remembered, life (it is technically a little younger than I am), and was a place I went many times with my Mother over the years (though probably not as many times as to the Two Notch store). In the beginning, the left side of the Kmart building was occupied by a Big Star grocery and then by an Old America Store. Finally, in the throes of the last good idea the chain had, Kmart converted to a Big-K format store and expanded into the old grocery space. This status-quo lasted a good number of years, but recently there have been signs of malaise like closing and trying to rent out the auto service bays.

I want to like Kmart as I have good childhood memories of the place, but their current strategy seems to be to not have a strategy, other than, perhaps, closing stores when Wal Mart opens nearby. Now, I'm not saying I know what a successful stragegy for them would be, but good heavens, they have to try *something*! Go 24 hours, get Martha Stewart back, co-brand with The Food Channel, open in-store bowling alleys -- something!

And hire some staff, yes, that's expensive, but if you're in a "bet the company" situation (and you are, whether you think of it that way or not) you've got to make shopping easy. The last time I stopped at this store, I was in a bit of a hurry and found my item quickly, but it was in a locked display case with nobody in the department. The staff I could find in other departments were very friendly, but couldn't leave their area and nobody ever showed up who could make the sale before I had to go -- so they didn't make that sale, and I'm not sure they can afford to not make sales.

Anyway, as of Memorial Day, the place was not completely picked clean and still had some reasonable looking bargins. I noticed in particular, that if you need some alkaline batteries, now is the time to get your "Die Hard" AAA, AA 9V & Cs (didn't see any Ds).

UPDATE 6 June 2012 -- And, it's gone!

UPDATE 11 June 2012 -- Pix from 7 June. The Devine Street roadside sign is gone, and the marquee sign is about to go:

UPDATE 14 June 2012: Added full 7 June 2012 photoset.

UPDATE 20 June 2012 -- As these pictures from 8 June show, all the signage is now gone (also added full 8 June photoset below):

Photosets:

Photoset 7 June 2012

Photoset 8 June 2012