Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well in some way's this is a complete surprise, and in others it's not unexpected.

To my memory this was the first Moe's location in Columbia, and opened shortly after I moved back to town. When it opened, it was a super place. The crew was well-trained and topnotch-on execution, and the burritos were tasty, well made, and never blew-out. The chips were always crisp and the salsa-bar well stocked, and the ice tea was some of the best I have had in fast-food: brewed strong and always very fresh. The menu names were quirky,but I quickly latched on to the Art Vandelay and I could order that and just let them make it as stated with very minimum customization.

While they place catered to adults to some extent -- for years beer was a beverage option, it also catered heavily to kids with one night every week dedicated to balloon animals and face-painting with special outside providers who would stop by and entertain the always packed dining room. They also had a promotion for regular folks, Moe Monday, a day when burritoes could be had for really quite economical outlays.

In general, I would make this my lunch stop on Mondays & Wednesdays, and life was good.

Gradually things started to change. The initial staff drifted away, and the new hires were noticably not as good. They stoped hiring the face painters and balloon lady, and the food quality started to go down. Sometimes the rice would be crispy, sometimes the lettuce would be wilted, or they would replace the shredded lettuce with romaine, which really doesn't work. The chips were often burnt or chewy and there were long-standing issues with bad smells in the drink machine area. Finally they stopped Moe Monday. For me, the nadir came when I stepped into the store and was the only customer, yet every table was dirty. I had cut my visits in half by that point, and was considering dropping it from the rotation entirely, but there were signs of hope along with more mixed ones. On the plus side, they got back people who had some idea what they were doing and didn't roll a burrito that would fall apart immediately, they also dumped the Freestyle machines that always got my hands wet and always had ice issues replacing them with standard fountains and a chewy ice dispenser. On the minus side, they dropped all the traditional item names and made it an ordeal to specify every single ingredient on your burrito, plus they tended to front-load ingredients, so if you were getting a little of everything, you would end up with a massive burrito that would, again, tend to fall apart. The chips were still uneven, but the quality of the ingredients had come back up some.

On the whole, I would have said things were stablizing, but when I pulled in today, the crew were loading up the trucks with all the mobile fixtures, and carting everything to the Devine location, a store which has its own issues (for instance, there's never any salt), but in general has a pretty good crew.

Oh well, it was nice (for about half the time) while it lasted.

Well, that didn't last long.

Taco Mundo replaced Liberty Tap Room (under the same ownership) opening about a year ago. I thought I might stop by eventually as I like Mexican, but in the event what with the hassle of parking downtown, other Mexican options, and frankly totally forgetting about it, I never got around to it.

I'm guessing that might have been a common set of problems, as apparently the new spot wasn't as busy as it needed to be to keep on.

The current plan seems to be for some sort of event (and catering?) space, which sounds even less like a reliable revenue stream to me, but we will see how it works out.

You can read about it in The State here.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

I was never particularly interested in going to TakoSushi, as the menu didn't sound up my alley, but there are a number of them about, so apparently it works for them. Although in the event, not in Forest Acres, I guess. The State has the closing story here, and say that the place was open for a little more than a year, after replacing Baskin Robbins, which closed in 2022.

The storefront is already in train to be a Jimador Real, which I assume is a smaller version of an El Jimador, though I don't really know.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

I thought every now and then that I might stop in here, but I was never in the area at the right time, or at least when I hadn't already decided where to go.

The business has been up for sale for a while, and apparently they have not found a buyer, shutting down about 13 August, judging by comments on their Facebook and this State story.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

I know I ate in this place once in 2024. I thought it was fine, nothing special, but certainly not bad. Given that Google reviews say it has been closed for around 7 months, I guess that must have been in the Spring or Summer of last year.

I'm a little fuzzy on the history of this place. I know it was a D's Wings, a Casa Linda and an El Patron before this, but I think I may have missed another Mexican restaurant somewhere in the rotation.

I do find the name a bit interesting as I associate Garibaldi with the foundation of modern Italy, not Mexico.

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I have never cared for Chipotle in general, and this one in particular as the few times I had eaten there I always had an issue: For instance the chips were stale the last time. My sister & nieces did enjoy it, but it was a running joke that they were always out of something basic like cheese with one fellow customer even going across to Publix to buy missing items.

The have moved a few blocks closer to I-77, into the new construction at the former site of San Jose, which gives them a drive-through. My understanding is that tonight they were out of guacamole.

Barrio Tacos was in the former location of Sports Talk Barbershop and a number of other businesses in this little strip of Devine Street which were moved out for the new development.

Originally the plan was for the building to become a second location for Griffen Chophouse, but that fell apart at some point, and Barrio came in on the rebound, opening, apparently, sometime early in 2024.

I had only just become aware of the place and never got a chance to visit. The State has the story here.

As reported by commenter Sidney, the Whiskey Kitchen house restaurant at the Delta Northeast on Two Notch is rebranding as a Mexican eatery: Dos Amigos. With a few notable exceptions, I have always found restaurants in hotels to be "eh..OK" in general. We'll have to see if this is any different, though as recent comments have pointed out, there is no dearth of Mexican restaurants on Two Notch..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

My memory is that this building was built to be a Redbone Alley, and after that it was a barbecue joint, and I believe briefly a jazz club before moving to mexican food as Pancho's. When the San Jose in the current Pasta Fresca building closed, Pancho's re-flagged as San Jose, and operated there for a number of years.

When commenter Larry mentioned that the San Jose had closed as was moving to the Sparkleberry location, I figured that another operation, perhaps an Asian buffet, would be in the space before long. I was quite surprised then that when I went by to get some pictures, the building was in the process of being knocked down. I guess I shouldn't be *too* surprised: It was an odd structure, with a mostly unused second floor which must have cost a lot to heat and cool. There are no signs indicating what, if anything, is to be built here once the lot is vacant.

There is apparently still electricity to the ornamental pool pump system, and it is beeping quite forlornly about the water level being low.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)