Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The address is a bit of speculation based on gazing at Google Maps, but I noticed this decrepit old house last week when I was driving down Sunset towards Lexington.

They are doing some wastewater work along the highway, and had trimmed the foliage back alongside the right-of-way, exposing this old place. It looks like at one time it could have been a starter-home with some character, but it has pretty much gone to the weeds at this point. I was surprised to see some furniture, newer than I might expect, still inside, but given the way the floor had collapsed under it, I did not venture from the (concrete slab) front porch any further inside.

If the address is correct, then this LoopNet listing suggests the house is on a four acre property that might go upscale someday, as the next lots to the south are a medical complex of some sort.

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Palmano's was in the small building below KJ's, formerly occupied by Reds. Judging from the google reviews, it was open until a few months ago, but has since transitioned to another pizza place (with mostly the same signage): New York Pizza & Pasta Factory. Google suggests the phone number is the same for both pizza shops, so perhaps this is more of a re-branding.

Here's a closing I just happened to notice during a drive-by the other day, but which happened late last year.

Lexington Jewelers in downtown Lexington closed on Christmas Eve of 2021 due to the retirement of the owner, who had been running the place for almost 40 years. You can read about it in The State or The Post & Courier.

Here's another Zoe's Kitchen closed for the conversion to Cava.

I do like the facade on the endcap this one sits in.

This building first featured here when it closed as a Pig in 2013. In late 2015 it re-opened as a KJ's IGA, lasting about seven years (which is longer than I had thought actually. WHere does the time go?).

I associate the IGA brand with smaller towns, but KJ's has brought several of them to the Columbia market, and as far as I know, the others are doing OK.

Now that two groceries have closed in this space, I would expect the next tenant to be something different.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath).

UPDATE 30 September 2022 -- Signage is down:

So, what's Kitty's Korner without Kitty's? It seems kind of counter-intuitive, but in fact this longtime Lexington Hallmark shop has now left its namesake location.

After the closing of a number of other locations, I believe the Seven Oaks store may be the last one left. Commenter Brian supplied the tip, and this link for the real-estate listing.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

In yet another sign of the oddness of our times, Rush's on Sunset Boulevard has closed temporarily due to staffing issues.

We have seen these drag on and become permanent at other places such as Lizard's Thicket on Beltline. Hopefully in this case they will be able to come back.

I used to go to O'Charley's in Augusta every now and then when I worked over there, and it was fine, although the only item I can recall in particular was a signature fresh made salsa with chips which they eventually took off the menu. When I came back to Columbia, I went to the location on Two Notch a few times, but never got in the habit of going there. That's probably because I usually got a burger when I went, and there are lots of burger places.

This one on Sunset, to which I have never been, is currently undergoing major repairs and/or renovations. Hopefully they will be back soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

[In happier times, 9 March 2014]

Well, this one hits closer to home than most as Uno has been one of my go-to places over the years to a greater or lesser degree.

I first got acquainted with Pizzeria Uno (the actual name of the place seems to have been given in different ways in different places) in the Georgetown section of Washington DC back when I was often working projects in that area. We were generally on some sort of deadline, and working late, and I knew that Uno would be reliably open until, I believe at that time and place, Midnight, so I would break out the rental car and head on over when I got back to the hotel (No Metro to Georgetown..)

I had no idea the Lexington location existed until well after it opened. Before I started this blog, Lexington was as remote to me as Columbus, and I had no clue what might be found in its untracked wilds. In the event, one of my cousins mentioned it and eventually I tracked it down. For a long time, like the Georgetown location, it was regularly open late, in this case until 11PM, and I would generally find myself there about once a week 9:30 or later. It got to the point that one of the waitresses would put in my order when she saw me come in the door. Then they moved the weeknight closing back to 10PM, and I was generally unable to get over there from Forest Acres. In retrospect, this was Sign #1 and it should have tipped me off.

I still went every now and then on the weekend until the pandemic hit, and it took longer than a lot of other places for Uno to reopen dine-in, and when they did, they were closing so early (8PM in some cases) that once again I was unable to make it over there. They never did get back to an 11PM closing, even on the weekends though they were open until 10PM then by the end.

As I mentioned in Have Your Say, I was actually there Saturday 23 April, the penultimate day of operation. At the time, there was no sign of anything wrong, and the staff were joking around with each other as they started winding down for the evening.

I really enjoyed the deep dish Chicago pizza, and they had some of the best iced tea in the area.

Here is the announcement on Facebook and here is an article in the Lexington Chronicle. Additionally, this Franchaise Times article gives some background on the chain including the observation that:

“I think the company got too far away from pizza,” said Erik Frederick, CEO of Uno Pizzeria & Grill.

I think there may be some truth to that as a lot of the menu (which I never sampled) was standard casual dining.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Hat)

UPDATE 28 June 2022 -- Some post-closing pictures:

UPDATE 14 August 2022: *Well!* -- This building has been razed! That surprises me some, and suggests that Uno could probably have continued for longer, but someone made them, or the property-owner a better offer:

I am pretty sure that It's A Wrap Cafe in Topspin Plaza never opened. According to ColaDaily, they were trying to move here from Atlanta in 2020 -- probably about the worst time since the Great Depression to open a restaurant. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but in the end they are back in Atlanta, with this comment on their Facebook:

It’s a lot of you that seem to think we’re posting from South Carolina! We are IN ATLANTA!!! Link in bio! SOUTH Carolina missed out because they…. 😩 we will just say it wasn’t in GODS plan! 😉

So apparently they took the long way round, but it seems to be working out for them, so good. In the meantime, this storefront is available.