Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

[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)

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.

I noticed this vacant storefront in McCauley Square on Sunset Boulevard last weekend.

It appears that the realty office has moved to Old Rapids Road, and given that the creation date for the PDF flyer is 28 December 2021, I am guessing that the move took place sometime before that.

The LoopNet listing has quite a nice aerial view of the place, with the signage still up.

I had noticed El Paso from time to time driving this stretch of US-1, mostly because it had some nice neon (which you can see here), and wondered about it as it was not one of the prevalent Mexican chains in the area, but never got around to trying it out. Now, as noted by commenter James R, it has rebranded as one of the "usual" local chains: San Jose.

The last google reviews are dated with the vague "three months ago", so I'm guessing the switch would have been around the New Year.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

UPDATE 10 March 2022: Adding "Reflections Event Venue" to the post title as the comments indicate that was the incarnation previous to El Paso.

To me, AAMCO always brings to mind a distinctive radio ad from the 60s or 70s. It went like:

Double-AY (beep! beep!) EM-CEE-OH!
AAMCO

That said, I've never been to a place that specialized in transmissions, though I might have if my '96 hadn't ended up getting totaled again. Anyway, this building is in Lexington at the point where US-378 splits away from North Lake Drive, and is now Tint World, which does "Automotive Styling and Window Tinting".

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I noticed as I was going to Uno recently that this Sunset Boulevard Nationwide office downhill from I-20 on the way into Lexington had moved. It looks like they are now at 5464 Sunset.

Next into the building will be a Kenneth Shuler branch.

This is the fifth closing I have done for this building, and there would have been six except I totally missed doing one for Levi's Lake House.

I don't know what it is about the spot -- It seems like a good location, and a good building, but nothing seems to stick. This may be the Lexington County 2360 Decker.

(Hat tip to commenter Steve)

I'm guessing at the closing date here, but given that commenter Zach reported this in early January, I'm guessing that they probably closed out the year & month and then folded with the New Year. Since there was still a "hiring" sign in the window, I wasn't sure until I got out of the car and peeked in the (heavily tinted) windows that they were actually closed. While the furnishings were still inside, it looked pretty clear from the state of things that they were not set to re-open the doors.

I have seen this new-ish chain in a number of locations lately, including several spots on the coast, but I have never gotten around to eating in one.

(Hat tip to commenter Zach)

UPDATE 18 Janurary 2022: Commenter Beth reports that in fact they are still open, so I have revised the post title with "Open". Always good to be wrong about bad news!

I don't know anything about this used car lot in Lexington, other than it was in a nice little legacy brick house, and they had somebody with a sense of humor doing their art.

Currently the lot is for sale -- and will be, I'm sure, another bit of development for this burgeoning corridor.

(Hat tip to commenter JohnR)

I found these pictures of an old barn weathering away across the street from the former Bi-Lo at Lake Murray Shopping Center that I took while I was doing that closing. I don't have any knowledge of exactly what it was, but I do like old barns. While this one is still partially surrounded by fields on two sides, it is amazing how much this corner (with US-378) has built up in the last few years according to old Google streetview images.

The date is a total guess, and doesn't even have much meaning -- even after a barn/shed stops being weather-proof it's still a place to stash stuff.