Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Monterrey Knox Abbott are now closed and are working on their new location in the old Zeus Pizza location in Parkland Plaza (not Parklane Plaza). I believe this location started as a Denny's, though according to Monterrey's closing sign, they were here for 26 years, which is no small run for a restaurant.

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Artsy Fartsy art gallery and coffee bar was one of those places I never could figure out in that I never actually saw it open, but yet it never closed either (though it seems to have rebooted several times). I like coffee, so I was prepared to stop if I ever *did* see it open, but somehow that never happened.

It looks like the place will be rezoned for a thrift store.

Well, I see I've already done a somewhat confused post on Wristwatch Doc when they opened a workspace on Fort Jackson Boulevard, but I'm going to make this a new post anyway.

As of yesterday, they have moved from the storefront on Forest Drive in the Brueggers building and out to 534 Knox Abbott Drive in Cayce. This, of course, is the former Signs 2 Go location.

I wish them well, but it was very convenient for me to have my watch batteries changed and get new bands at the Forest Drive location.

UPDATE 28 April 2014 -- The Forest Drive storefront and message:

I don't know much about this place, but I believe they moved here (more or less across from Tony's Pizza) from Meeting Street.

Zeus Pizza was the follow-on operation to Tony's Pizza in Parkland Plaza, using in fact a good bit of the same signage and interior setup.

As you can see from these pictures, the restaurant was a long narrow space. I think it might have benefited from more window tables, but the one time I ate there, I found it pleasant enough. As I recall, I had the stuffed shells with garlic bread, and it was perfectly fine. At that time, the restaurant had a cloth sign for "Zeus" hung over the "Tony's" lettering, as you can see in commenter Andrew's photos at the Tony's link above. I presume that if they had made it over the initial hump, they would have eventually gotten permanent letters over the marquee.

I'm not exactly sure when they closed -- The April issue of Skirt magazine is still in the inside rack, but that may be bi-monthly. I'm going to say it was probably at the end of May giving them about an 8 or 9 month run.

(Hat tip to commenter badger)

UPDATE 1 August 2012: Zeus is open again. See the comments for details, but here is the website.

UPDATE 4 October 2012: As mentioned in the comments, Zeus is unfortunately closed again:

UPDATE 8 October 2014 -- Monterrey will be moving here from across Knox Abbott when their current building (bought by USC) is torn down:

I was very surprised to hear that Dollar General had pulled out of Parkland Plaza. I guess that's because I think of the chain as downscale but savvy: A Dollar General store isn't going to be brim-full of high margin items, but they seem to know their customer base and to be quite competent at what they do.

I do know that in some places (such as Pawleys Island) they have pulled a store out of an underperforming strip mall to re-open it nearby as a standalone building, but I don't think that is the case here -- though certainly factoring together this pullout with the recent Hi-Lites pullout, Parkland Plaza has to be marked as underperforming..

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Hi-Lites Ladies'Clothing ("Name Brands At Outlet Prices") seems to mainly follow a small town strategy. Apart from this Cayce store, the chain's locator page lists the other Carolinas' locations as

Albemarle, Atlantic Beach, Clinton (NC), Laurinburg, Lincolnton, Monroe, Mount Olive, Newton, Sanford, Shelby, Whiteville, Bennettsville, Dillon and Lancaster

It's interesting that by putting their "Columbia" store in Cayce, they got a somewhat similar area, but inside a fairly major Metro. Of course, apparently it didn't work out for them.

Parkland Plaza had been on a bit of an upswing lately, with the Ace Hardware re-opening, and the Dollar Discount being replaced, but this closing and that of Dollar General (which I will probably get to soon) along with the continuing vacancy at the old Parkland Pharmacy/CVS site put the place back almost to square one.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 4 April 2012 -- I went back when I could stop and got some better pictures:

I wrote about this place a good while ago in a closing for The Gamecock Theater, and actually in that closing, from 2008, I noted that it also was closed. It may not exactly be that simple though.

Anyway, Resale Revue, in its first incarnation, was an antique-mall type of place. I only went in once, and it seemed it skewed more towards flea-market type antiques (old records, toasters etc) than antique furniture -- which was fine by me. I think I may have gotten a dial telephone there, but I have a number of them (two still hooked up..) and can't really recall.

That incarnation was gone by 2008, but I noticed this year that the place was hosting events for the Indie Grits Festival using the old theater space as a venue. Given that the a Colliers Keenan sign was in place in 2008 and is still in place, I'm guessing that the owners rent the space out for events from time to time as they are able, and the name carries over as nobody is going to change the sign for that.

Update 2 September 2020: Take "Parkland Plaza" out of the post title and add it as a tag. Add map icon, update tags in general.

I don't know what this little building on Knox Abbott just below Silver City was originally, but with that open front and closed back, it looks a bit like a dry-cleaner to me. (Though I don't see a drive-through).

The Secretary Of State's office says that from 1997 to 2004, it was Cayce Outdoor Power Equipment. I believe it was Signs 2 Go from then until now.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 6 October 2011: Commenter Jonathan says Signs 2 Go have moved to Meeting Street, so I have updated the post title with "(moved)".

UPDATE 26 April 2014 -- It's now Wristwatch Doc:

Well, here is yet another cell-phone store closing, featuring both reversed and reversed-upside-down name placards. (This is not uncommon, apparently you want to keep the sign-boxes closed to the elements, without having to buy blank signs). I'm not sure exactly when this place closed, but it is in this year's phonebook (Feb-2011/Feb-2012), so I'm going to just say "2011". This little strip mall is on Knox Abbott a little west of Parkland Plaza, and just about across the street from Silver City.