Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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..

This small Southern breakfast and lunch restaurant opened in April of 2013 as an extension of the original West Columbia location. Given the location and the fact that I rarely make it up in time for breakfast when I'm on my own schedule, I never had an opportunity to stop by though I do hanker for grits every now and then.

According to the linked article, Compton's replaced another breakfast oriented place, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues with the next tenant.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I noticed this nice little brick office building droving from Lexington to Irmo a few weekends ago. Apparently the clinic has relocated to 121 Park Place Court, which is off of Sunset, just about where Monkey Joe's used to be.

After after the huge Radio Shack die-off of a year or so ago, the only two Radio Shack locations I could think of that were still open, were this one by Kmart in Lexington, and one in Murrells Inlet. Now that this one is going, I will have to keep my eye on the Grand Strand location.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I mentioned a while ago that the Forest Drive location of Nutrition Warehouse had closed, along with its contract Post Office. I was unaware of this Lexington branch of the chain, but it seems to have closed recently as well. I am happy to report the Colonial Life Drive Boulevard and Post Office is still open, though that's a bit far for me to bring my packages.

The State has the story of this Lexington closing for Stephano's. The long and short of it is the owners are retiring, and the building will re-open as The Root Cellar, "featur[ing] locally grown meats and produce".

It's still hard for me to believe that a restaurant opened in 1977 has been around almost 40 years -- 1977 seems like just yesterday.

UPDATE 9 June 2016 -- Here is The Free Times on 'The Root Cellar'

UPDATE 11 July 2016 -- The Root Cellar:

I had driven past the Old Mill in Lexington a number of times since the great flood of 4 October 2015 which burst the dam, but I had never taken the time to stop and have a look. Since it was a nice sunny day and I had some time, I took the opportunity to check it out on 21 May 2016.

It appears to me that there were two channels out of the now dry mill pond to the creeks that cross under US-1. The south fork, which is now basically stagnant with no connection to the water flow out of the former pond and the north fork which comes through the dam washout, and is flowing quite vigorously. Since the channel clearly predates the dam breach, I guess there was a spillway in the dam for this channel to power the equipment of the original mill, and that this spillway gave way in the breach.

The dam itself is an earthen embankment and apart from the breach on the end nearest to the mill complex is still largely intact. I was able to get on top of it and walk almost to the breach. (I could have walked *to* the breach and gotten some better pictures, but I didn't see any reason to give another portion of the dam the temptation to give way with me on top..)

I'm not sure what the plans for the site are. There does not appear to have been any start at reconstructing the dam, and of course as the mill is no longer active, there is no necessity to do so, but the pond is a nice setting for the various restaurants and businesses in the old mill comples..

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This Lexington Mexican spot on a Target outparcel was originally a Casa Linda.

As this closing is close to events in the news, I want to be very careful what I say, but you can read some background in The State here.

As of a few days ago, the Forest Drive Pancho's was still open.

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

There's not much to say about the closing of the Lexington Ryan's that hasn't been said elsewhere. I will note that I am a little surprised that this store, and the Two Notch Store both still have all the branding and signage up. Usually when a company that is still active closes a store, they like to get that down quickly to avoid associating the chain with failure. In my mind that means things are perhaps even worse than they seem, if that's possible.

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

This storefront, co-located with a convenience store, was orginally Kotas Sandwiches. After that closed, the place re-opened for a while as Kotas Your Way!.

It appears from the signage, and the food truck parked in the lot that the new owners have closed the storefront and now concentrate on catering chiken & pizza from two food trucks.

UPDATE 11 July 2016 -- Now PK-BBQ: