Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I believe the last time I did a closing for this place was as Uncle Ozzy's, although I did not have any pictures of that actual incarnation. This old Popeye's location has been the site of many short-lived operations since the original tenant closed, and I know I have missed several of them.

Noisy Wings seems to have had several locations, and continues to run on Clemson Road. 3315 Grille is I think the most recent to close and I don't really know anything about it. I could have sworn there was a Chinese restaurant in the spot fairly recently, but I don't see anything online about that.

UPDATE 9 June 2022 -- Found a few more pictures:

Well, I took my eyes off the old Popeye's location, and missed two closings.

South Carolina Dream Wings was the follow on to Jade Palace which closed in early 2018. South Carolina Dream Wings opened shortly thereafter, and I'm not sure when they closed.

After that, and without ever getting around to changing all the signs, Uncle Ozzy's opened. It was, in a complete change for this spot, a schnitzel operation. The Free Times highlighted it as a Bite Of the Week location, proving once again Yogi Berra's observation that It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future:

The location has had a long and varied history, but Ozzy gives you a good feeling that this could be a place that sticks around for a really long time.

[Update: Uncle Ozzy's closed suddenly after Free Times sampled its Hunterschnitzel on Sept. 12.]

Looking at Uncle Ozzy's Facebook page, it appears that the owners had a falling out.

UPDATE 12 May 2020 Fix the address. There seems to be some confusion, but I think it's 3315 Farrow Road. Certainly what I had (3115 Farrow) was wrong. Also, hope springs eternal. This place is now Noisy Wings:

Jade Palace was the follow-on operation in this building to China Dragon, which was a follow-on (though probably not a direct one) to Popeye's Chicken who built the building in the rocky-facade style they used at the time.

Commenter Thomas noted that Jade Place had opened in February of 2010, so they had about an eight year run, which is not bad.

The building was not vacant for long at all (it is now a wing joint), which makes me wonder if perhaps the ownership is still the same.

(Hat tip to commenter Toby)

UPDATE 18 November 2019 -- Correct address from 3113 Farrow to 3115 Farrow. Add map icon.

I'm not sure what the issues were since they spent a good while remodeling this building after it was Sunset Grill & Pizza, and that was not so long ago, but at any rate, there does appear to be actual work going on here, so I expect it will not be long before this Chickadee's location is back.

(Hat tip to commenter gofinsc and others)

UPDATE 22 February 2019 -- They had re-opened after the Fall 2017 closing in the post title, but now closed again for good to become King's Pizza:

UPDATE 11 May 2019 -- A) King's Pizza is apparently no longer coming here and B) This site is going downhill fast:

UPDATE 21 September 2021 -- Now open as Tropical Smoothie Cafe:

Here's another set of pictures from commenter Homer, who says:

Here are some pictures of the old location of Chickadee's Diner, 7949
Broad River Rd in Irmo (Bi-Lo Shopping Center). I'm not sure when they
closed but they moved to the location that corresponds to the closings
entry for BJ's Cafe at 1729 Marshall St.

You can see the setting up for the Marshall Street location here at the Sunset Grill & Pizza closing. Since I took those shots, Chickadees has opened for business there.

This was the follow-on operation to BJ's Cafe, and looks to have been open only during the spring & summer of 2016.

As commenter badger speculated it is now to become Chickadees Diner location and according to their Facebook they hope to be open at the start of October.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Commenter Brian mentioned that BJ's Cafe near Richland Memorial appeared to be closed.

I drove by, and found that was in fact the case, but that there were a number of workers inside the building, so something is happening there, either a remodel for the same operation, or an upfit for a new one.

The BJ's web site gives no additional information.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

UPDATE 26 May 2016 -- Now open as Sunset Grill & Pizza:

It appears that China Dragon restaurant on the corner of Farrow Road and Beltline Boulevard is gone. When I took these pictures, it was after the return date stated on the vacation sign, but the phone had not been disconnected, so I held off posting. Now the phone is cut off and when I drove by this evening, there were a couple of cars there with people who seemed to be looking at the property (though there is no "For Sale" sign).

I never ate at China Dragon but the building has been there forever, and stuck in my mind as a kid because of the rocky exterior. Since we went down that way so seldom, I had a poor mental model in my mind of exactly where it was, and would always be surprised when I saw it again.

The building design is clearly the same as this much restauranted building on Decker Boulevard, so going by the comments there, it was probably originally a Popeye's Chicken.

Read the rest of this entry »

I don't ever remember this PIggly Wiggly, now a furniture store, being in operation, but then we didn't go down South Beltline much growing up. The building has a classic 1960s look, and I'm happy to see that Kimbrell & Sons have kept the raised marquee letters along the roof-line.

This store is similar in size to the old Trenholm Park Pig which also had the roof letters back in the day. I'm not sure why the store closed, but there's a newer Pig about half a mile up South Beltline, so I'll speculate that this stand-alone operation was axed in favor of locating in what would have been at the time a new strip mall, and which is closer to the Two Notch corridor as well.