Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I think Old Chicago has a decent pizza, and here in Columbia it has the advantage of being a decent place regularly open late. About the only negative thing I have to say is that they can't settle on a garlic bread appetizer. They have gone through three or four iterations in the last several years. Anyway, this Murrells Inlet location was not open late as consistently as the Vista one, as is typical for Grand Strand restaurants in the off seaosns, but nonetheless I ate there a good number of times over the last several years.

It was a new store, replacing another bar whose name escapes me, and which was completely razed to put up this building, but in the end it didn't last that long. I noticed in December driving by that it did not appear to be open when I would expect it to be, and finally a stop verified that it was gone.

The Sun News had the story here, saying that 30 November was the last night.

The follow-on is now open -- Bohemian Bull Tavern and Beer Garden:

Columbia's only TGI Fridays closed back in 2013, with the building to bite the dust sometime this year probably, but the Grand Strand continued to have several locations.

I ate at this one back in January of 2024, and it was fine: A decent burger & fries an hour after most other places were closed. I did notice that it wasn't actually open as late as I expected from a Fridays, and that the customers were pretty sparse, but in general it seemed in good order, and I was surprised to see the signage down on my last visit.

This continues the trend of Inlet Square losing national chain restaurants, some thing that has included Hooters, Applebee's & J. Peters & Spinnaker's. In the case of all of those except the last, local operations have moved in after the chains shut, so we will have to see what happens here. I do know that some sort of redevelopment for Inlet Square is supposedly in the cards (of course that has been the case before with nothing materializing..)

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I got a late start to this year's Nights Of A Thousand Candles because a) I'm slack, and b) It was raining a bit earlier, but on getting there, found it dry, and the warmest of any of the years I have been there. There have been a number of years that it has been so cold I could barely take pictures since I couldn't feel the camera buttons, but this year I hardly needed a sweater, and the new "S'mores" pits were actually a bit too hot.

The basic theme of candles & lights in trees remains the same, but there are always a few new setups, this year's lighted bottles, for instance to keep things fresh, and I always highly enjoy it. The festival continues through New Years, and if you have a chance to check it out, you really should.

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Well, this is probably going to be my last Tuesday Morning closing for a while, unless I end up somewhere I don't usually go. This one was in the Food Lion plaza near Carrabba's of US-17 Business in Murrells Inlet. Like the others featuring here recently, it was caught up in the chain's bankruptcy, and was selling everything down to the fixtures at the end. I don't know for sure, but I expect all of the Tuesday Morning locations in the state are now closed.

Speaking of Krystal, Franco's was the Krystal follow-on in this Murrells Inlet storefront, and if you look closely you can still the Krystal signage label-scar.

I never tried this place out as I have plenty of go-to pizza joints on the Grand Strand, and I've always found pizza described as "New York" to be underwhelming. I can't find any media reference to the place closing, but looking on the dates of Google reviews suggest it closed early this year.

UPDATE 9 July 2023: To become Mulberry Street NY Pizzeria

I'm glad I saw this year's Nights of 1000 Candles last week when it was still pleasant outside. I know the folks who saw it tonight were probably brittle with the cold.

Since I couldn't get any weekend tickets, I went on a Wednesday this year,and my impression is it was a little more subdued, but there was still a pretty good crowd. I didn't notice any big changes from last year, but as always, it was a very impressive display, and a nice way to spend an evening. I believe they are sold out for the rest of the year, but if you do find you can get tickets, I recommend it.

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The Sandy Monkey was in Murrells Inlet (or possibly Garden City depending on what you go by) in a small plaza next to the now razed Jungle Lake Golf. At one time there were at least three businesses in this area, including a little walk-up hut-style operation which seemed to change names and cusines every few years. I seem to remember a coin laundry in the strip as well at one time.

I believe I ate in the building once when it was an Italian operation, and was not impressed enough to go back. The pictures on their Yelp page suggest that The Sandy Monkey set up here in 1990, and the reviews, Yelp & otherwise, suggest that while it had its partisans, the non-regulars were not impressed. The whole plaza has been razed now, which is a bit surprising as you would think that meant they had a plan going forward, but it's been a number of years now since this building and the golf operation were gone and the area is still vacant.

Interestingly, their Facebook is still up.

I only ate at Milardo's once, probably about two years ago. I was not enthused about the place as both the pizza sauce and the garlic knots were unexpectedly sweet. It might have been nice have a second go some evening and eat on the roof, but in the event, I never got around to that.

It looks like they are setting up for a follow-on operation: Player 1 Up.

I took the opportunity Saturday to make my annual trip to Brookgreen Gardens and the Nights Of A Thousand Candles Christmas display. This year was quite warm for a December night, unlike some years in the past, and it was very pleasant to be out and about under the trees with all the lights and candles.

As usual, the big picture stays the same: sculpture, trees & lights, but the details change yearly. This year, I think there was more going on in the Children's Garden for instance, and less in The Fountain of the Muses. I also think that they took some cues from last year's Bruce Munroe installation, which I liked quite a bit, especially in the riverbank area which rather combined the ideas from his frog display and his firefly display in a way.

One very noticable change was that the popular "Holiday Memories & Trains" exhibit has moved across the main concourse to the Rosen Galleries, leaving the old space as a members' lounge.

Though some of the remaining nights are sold out, if you can Read the rest of this entry »

When I was getting pictures for Books A Million I noticed that the J Peters building was vacant as well. I figured they had gone under during the great plague of 2020, but a little research established that, in fact, they have moved to a better waterfront location on the Marsh Walk in Murrells Inlet.

This building was originally an Applebee’s, and I ate there a number of times, though I was more likely to go to the adjacent T.G.I. Friday's. Applebee's have had their own trouble over the past few years and have closed a number of locations. This one apparently went under in August 2017. Here is a 2017 Sun News story about the closing of Applebee's and the opening of J Peters. I can't find a story on the move to the waterfront, but based on reviews, I would say it was about August of 2020.

In the meantime, this is one more vacancy in the Inlet Square vicinity.