Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I ate at this Five Guys a number of times, probably most memorably on a group trip from work to go downtown and buy some decent office chairs. Come to think of it, that may have been the last time I ate here, and that would have been probably ten years ago now. I like Five Guys (though the price is now amazing), but tend towards Columbiana or Forest Drive.

At any rate this one was caught up in the same property buyout that Monterrey was, and is now half demolished. In fact since these pictures are at least a week old, it is probably all demolished now.

Mel's (originally mooted to be Mo's) replaced Zesto in this location which closed in December of 2024. They got going in the summer of 2025, and so lasted about a year. I had not stopped since then, but was looking forward to a soft-serve chocolate dip to close out August. In the event, they have been closed several weeks, and a (mysterious) new concept is supposed to debut here in September.

You can read about it in The State, The Post & Courier or on WIS.

I actually thought this place was closed several months ago because I never saw any cars there, and I had to ride around the parking lot to verify it was open. That was then & this is now, I guess...

Since I rarely watch TV or listen to the radio anymore, I don't have any idea what the distinguishing feature for this chain was, or why I would pick it over Five Guys on the high-end or McDonalds on the low end. In the event, perhaps I was not alone.

Certainly all in all, I would much rather still have Pizzeria Uno on this spot.

The State has the story.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

This Ashland Park storefront has been a number of restaurants over the years, from Low Country Cafe to Steve's. Full Bellies moved in after Steve's closed in April of 2025, and closed just before Christmas of the same year. You can see their farewell message here.

I had to check out the phones. They are in very good shape, but there is no dial-tone. If you look closely, you can see that the nameplate on them is for Blackbeard's Seafood, a place I never heard of and have not featured here.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I have only been in a Freddy's once, at the Sunset location and I got a milkshake which I thought was pretty good.

The State reported the opening of this location in 2018, with the chain representing that

The surrounding residential neighborhoods around Lake Murray make the location a great fit for Freddy’s.

I guess in the event eight years later perhaps not so much.

Here is The State story on the closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Kenneth)

Here's another place I wasn't really aware of. Judging from the name and the decor, they were going for a retro vibe, which can certainly work for a burger place. This storefront is in the Lexington Square enclave which is anchored by Lowes Food.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

I noticed this vacant Sonic last weekend in Lexington.

According to The State, it closed around the end of December 2022 in order for the chain to open a new store nearby at 461 Columbia Avenue, a somewhat larger piece of land.

As of yet, there is no new tenant here though it is listed (with a nice picture of the store in operation).

UPDATE 30 September 2025 -- Apparently the building has been sold, and some sort of upfit is in progress:

Also, here is the new Sonic location:

UPDATE 6 February 2026 -- To be an ice cream parlor apparently:

We've mentioned this closing several times in Have Your Say, but Blythewood based Chubby's Burgers has closd their Jackson Square location. This storefront is a mention on Good Luck With That, having hosted a number of different restaurants in the relatively short time the plaza has existed.

I always expected I would check out Chubby's sooner or later, but if it's a matter of driving out to Blythewood, that may not now happen.

The Free Times has the story.

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.

Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce... And everything else now too.

This Burger King is on 8th Street in Fernandina, which is the main road coming onto the island from the mainland. That makes it a high traffic location, and the store was in a decent area (there aren't any really bad spots on 8th), so I'm not sure what happened here.

Well, OK, apparently the place was just bad: The google reviews are sprinkled with one-star reports, including the classic

I recommend taco bell or starve.

and the Yelp reviews are worse. The question is how does that happen? I get that the franchaise system means local ownership, but at some level corporate has to take care of the brand.

Anyway, as I said it's a decent location, so I would expect something else before too long.

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