Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This open-air hotdog & hamburger stand was formerly Charlie's Barber Shop and then Pelican's Snoballs (which moved up the street).

They have another location, which is still open at 655 Saint Andrews Road in the former Tripps Fine Cleaners storefront.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

This was where I had my last Sandy dog, some time in the summer of 2019. It was good, and I remember thinking I should do that more often, but in the event never did.

“Our business is doing extremely well, so it’s a funny time to be getting out of the business,” Sanderson says. “I’m starting to work on my 80th birthday and it’s beyond retirement time.”

I suppose I'll be featuring all the former Sandy's locations here before too long. This is one I actually ate at at least once, and probably a few more times after shopping expeditions to Dutch Square. This store is part of the row of restaurants and other businesses that fronts on Broad River Road and backs on (or has access to) Diamond Lane in the former Intersection Center. I see now that (presumably) the church which bought all the back property has put gates cutting off through access to Diamond Lane, which I can understand -- it was kind of an odd setup.

The State has more details on Sandy's history and closing.

UPDATE 4 February 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments, this building is to become Asian Express:

UPDATE 24 June 2021 -- The Asian Express appears poised to open:

UPDATE 13 March 2023 -- Asian Express is open, and has been for a good while:

Here's another empty counter in Columbia Mall's food court. I don't know anything about it, but google does suggest that there was a Mano's Express in the Dutch Square food court. It seems an uncommon enough name that I suspect they were related, though the other one seems to have focused on soul food, while this one went the burgers & dogs route.

Nathan's/Chester's was the follow-on operation in this I-26 rest stop location to Maggie Mae's.

I'm wondering, since the closing sign is somewhat similar, if it were under the same ownership as the Dutch Fork Nathan's. I'm going with late 2017 as the closing date as the place is not yet fully stripped inside.

(Hat tip to commener Frank Mancuso)

UPDATE 30 August 2021: Add a real street address, update tags and add map icon.

I've still never had a Nathan's dog though it's on my list somewhere. This one was co-located with the Pitt Stop in Ballentine. Looking in the new phonebook, I don't see any other locations listed though I am pretty sure there is still one slightly out of the area at an I-26 interchange heading for Charleston.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 30 August 2021: Updating tags, adding map icon.

For some reason I haven't had a Sandy-dog in years. Ever since I started working from home again, I figured one day I would drive down to main for lunch and do it, but someshow there always seemed to be a deadline or some urgent problem that would make me reluctant to go that far. I guess if I want to do it now, it'll have to be Broad River and on a weekend..

According to The State this Sandy's had been open since 1989. I believe that before that, it may have been a Hardee's though I'm not sure. It was some sort of fast food at any rate. This closing is a bit curious as in March 2016 The State was reporting that after a student housing scare they had just put a good bit of money into the building and planned to stay for the long haul, while by December 2016 they had sold the property to the USC Development Foundation.

You can see a good picture of the place in operation here.

UPDATE 18 April 2017: Added "Hardee's" to the post title. Apparently this was the Hardee's franchaise that later moved to the corner of Blossom & Assembly.

UPDATE 14 March 2019 -- Now a Dominos Pizza:

UPDATE 22 January 2020: Update tags.

UPDATE 19 June 2021: Update tags again.

If you look way in the back left in the first shot above, you can vaguely see the Buddy's storefront. For some reason, when I went by this little Lexington plaza the other night, I was thinking Buddy's was in the slot next to Brueggers and did not take any pictures of the right storefront. (I certainly should have known better, as I did a closing for Mr. Hibachi which was the real former tenant next to Brueggers..)

Anyway, the reason I was there at all (aside from pizza at Uno) was this little article from The State, noting that Buddy's Saucy Dogs had closed down, and is to be replaced by an "artisan taco restaurant, One Taco, Two Taco".

I like hotdogs; I don't know why I very rarely get them from a restaurant. I guess I automatically think of cooking them over a fire on a stick, or over the burner on a fork..

UPDATE 10 October 2016 -- Signage for One Taco Two Taco is up. Interesting that they are going the full bar route. That puts them up with Cantina 76:

Well, this is the end of an era. Edna's on River Drive predates me into this world by something over a year, so has been a Columbia institution longer than I've been alive. Of course, it has been an institution in a part of the town we used to think of as far away, so if we ever ate here growing up, it was long enough ago, and infrequently enough that I can't remember it. I'll have to try to remedy that before 31 March.

This kind of walk-up, no inside dining restaurant used to be common. In fact that's the way I recall Bell's and the original Garners Ferry McDonald's. Nowdays it is much less common, though you can still see remnants of the style, now worked around, in Zesto and Dairy Bar. I love the common-sense practicality of the cement blocks shorter customers can stand on to bring them up to window level.

Edna's also had an affiliated located at 2200 Two Notch Road, in a building that is still there, and a third location off Forest Drive, which was razed some years ago.

Here is a nice appreciation of Marie Rose Tyner, who ran the restaurant for many years and passed in the summer of 2015.

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The only time I ever ate at a Sam's Corner was Monday 30 June 1997.

I was living in Aiken at the time (and working in Augusta), but found out less than a week in advance that The Beach Boys were playing the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach that day. It was a rare small venue appearance, and I think many fans realized it was probably one of the last chances to see Carl Wilson on stage. In the event it was a bittersweet performance. Carl played most of the set seated and I think everyone in the audience could tell he was not long for the world, though he still sounded like an angel.

At any rate, when the show was over, with it not being a weekend, I was on the hook to be at work the following morning, so I fortified myself at the NMB Sam's with a hot-dog and coffee and made it back to Aiken (after further fortification with Waffle House coffee in Manning) in time to slip into bed half an hour before I had to get up. It was not something I could do now, and could barely do then.

Truthfully I was so focused on what I had to do that Sam's made little impression on me other than it was well lit, had an acceptable chili-dog and drinkable coffee.

I think the NMB location was the second for the chain, with one by the pier in Garden City being the first.

This location on US-17 in Pawleys Island came much later, and was, I think, something of a miss-step as the South Strand is a much different place from Myrtle Beach or even Garden City. I had noticed over the few years it was open that despite the proudly proclaimed 24 Hours in fact during the off season, it was rarely open past 10, and lately wasn't open at all except during the summer. I even did a post on the dark building called 25th Hour a few months ago.

On my last trip down over the Memorial Day week I saw that the place is now officially closed, even though they apparently had a plan to upfit the office space.