Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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Well, my trend is apparently to get to the Heroes Convention later each year, especially when forgetting to factor in the stupidity that is I-77 in the Queen City.

My impression is that there was a bit less along the vintage paperback, pulp magazine and old humor collections this year, and I came away with rather less swag than usual, though I did make the mistake of making eye contact with several good pitchmen. There also seemed to be a bit less cosplay than during the peak Marvel movie years, though that take may be due in part to my starting on the opposite side of the (huge) floor from the costume contest area. I did come away with a few gifts for my nieces, and some new "weird western" graphic novels from Mike Baron. (No new Nexus projects were ready, but he is doing a kickstarter for the next one).

On the way home, I decided to detour a bit on the inner loop towards Huntersville, and man I thought there was something wrong with my car: The tire noise on the segment near the airport is awful!

This Litchfield building was put up as a Sam's Corner, which was doing a lot of expansion back in the teens. I don't know if they were franchaising the concept or what, but I believe they are now back down to the original Garden City location. Be that as it may this spot went through a number of other concepts fairly quickly over the years with Andomiro being the latest. The concept was interesting, an Asian/Jamacian fusion menu, but probably not for me, and I never did stop in.

The end seems to have come rather suddenly, not long before I took these pictures on 25 May, with the fully equipped site up for sale.

I will mention the the adjacent ice-cream shop is very good.

I believe I ate at Uncle Mikey's once several years ago, possibly after Pastaria 811 closed and I was looking for a new second go-to at the beach. In the event, I thought it was just OK, perhaps because there was live entertainment that night which I hadn't expected, and the place was a bit noisy. After the owner retired and sold the place, it was set to drop the "Uncle" and just become Mikey's Pizzeria, something I am unsure ever actually happened: I see some "coming soon" posts, but no actual reviews. At any rate, if it did happen, it didn't last too long and the building is now for sale.

In the meantime, it appears there is a possibility that the original owner will come out of retirement and open a spot by Smuggler's Deli on the bypass.

WBTW had the closing story:

I had wanted to see The Beach Boys at the Alabama Theater earlier this year, but could not get it together. In the event, I believe the date may have been rescheduled for later this year. Had it taken place, it would likely have been my last time to see two Beach Boys together, as long-time member Bruce Johnston announced his retirement from touring last month. With Bruce spending his nights in his own bed, Mike Love & Al Jardine are the only two official Beach Boys still active, though they don't get along well enough to tour together.

Anyway, when I mentioned I was going to the Beach, my sister pointed me to a news article mentioning that Mike's Beach Boys would be at the OneFlight Myrtle Beach Classic golf tournament at the Grand Dunes resort, so I picked up a ticket (a really odd and frustrating process, ending up with something you can't just print out), and headed out Friday afternoon.

It turned out that the shuttle parking lot was the old Myrtle Square Mall site (which is still completely vacant after all these years), so i parked and got on a bus which took us a mile or so north. I had never been back in Grand Dunes, which is gated, but it is quite nice with golf, houses and a country club all right on the ocean. The concert site was backed up against the shore, and you could see boats passing by behind the stage. It was quite a chilly evening for May, and I had my sweater buttoned up.

The opening act was an Italian singer I had not heard of, Benedetta Caretta. She sang to backing tracks, without a band (aside from one song where she brought out a guitarist). From where I was standing, I could barely hear her, but she seemed to have quite a nice voice.

After she finished her set, which was probably about five songs, the roadies starting setting up for the main show, and Mike & co opened with a 1968 top-20 hit, "Do It Again", moving directly after that into the more well-known "Surfin' Safari".

John Stamos mentioned Mike's recent 85th birthday, and yes, I have to admit, Mike was not having a great voice night. He was certainly game, and the audience was appreciative, but the numbers which were originally sung by another Beach Boy back in the day came off better as the band was quite good, both vocally and instrumentally. I'm not quite sure why Stamos was there, whether it was a one-off, or if he is on the tour, but he has been associated with the band since the 1980s so it's never a real surprise to see him turn up. I thought he did a very nice version of Dennis Wilson's classic song, "Forever".

I didn't capture any of the first songs on video because from where I was standing, the sound was trash. I thought it was down to the wind and the sound system, but when I walked just a few feet closer a bit later on, I was suddenly in the focus zone, and the sound was excellent, and I did record several numbers (fumbling the start a few times) and the traditional closing duo: "Barbara Ann" & "Fun, Fun, Fun".

The setlist was something like this, though I won't vouch for the order except for the first two & last two numbers:

Do It Again
Surfin Safari
Catch A Wave
Surfin' USA
Surfer Girl
409
Little Deuce Coupe
Shutdown
Don't Worry Baby
I Get Around
Darlin'
Help Me Rhonda
Be True To Your School
Sloop John B
God Only Knows
Wouldn't It Be Nice
Good Vibrations
Forever
California Girls
California Dreaming
Rockaway Beach
Kokomo
Barbara Ann
Fun, Fun, Fun

Given the venue and time limit, there weren't a lot of deep cuts, but probably "Rockaway Beach" surprised some folks.

Well here's an interesting case: The Island Bar & Grill closed while I was avoiding it, and a new place opened, and closed all before I noticed it due to staying away...

This corner slot in Village Shops has been a number of places over the years. One I recall specifically is Villa Katrina, a Mexican eatery which, I believe, still has a location in Myrtle Beach. Anyway, the Island Bar & Grill had been there a number of years, and was an OK local option for the most part with decent burgers and other bar food, and a nice deck when the weather wasn't sweltering. That gradually started to change in recent years, leading to a number of sub-par dining experiences to the point the the place finally got taken off the list when I went there with my college room-mate & his wife and they lacked half the ingredients for her order without ever mentioning that fact until plopping it, basically inedible, on the table in front of her. After a previous visit with esentially no service, that was the final straw. You can see similar experiences in the Google reviews.

Anyway, while I was avoiding it like the plague, the place apparently closed around Spring of 2025 (Hey Google! -- You obviously know the exact date for every review, what's with this "A Year Ago" stuff?), and re-opened as Pawleys Back Deck, something I did not know until I wondered about the lack of cars in the parking lot and went to take a look. The reviews for that operation are somewhat better, but they seem to have left business in an involuntary fashion at the end of March.

By the way, if you are looking at the plaza sign, Tuscany Bistro closed at least a year ago if not more and was replaced with a Fish Camp.

I believe this Speedway started off as a Hess many years ago and changed brands to Speedway when Marathon bought Hess's retail business around 2017. Despite not having a light, the location is pretty good with easy access from north-bound US-17, and a back connection to the Blockade cross street. However, for whatever reason, the place had not really been kept up, and when I went in there last year, it looked really dingy and threadbare. According to this Facebook thread, with the opening of the new Refuel to the south (which I agree with one poster there has an awful location), they weren't making any money, and the rent was going up. There's some speculation fast-food may be going in, but there doesn't seem to be anything official yet.

I took in Brookgreen Gardens Nights Of A Thousand Candles on Wednesday 3 December this year. For a midweek showing, they had a pretty good crowd, though it being a school night, there were not a lot of kids.

At last year's event, the Garden Of The Muses was closed due to the start of construction on the Judith Wall Courtyard, which is nearly done this year. The part that was opened looked like it will be a nice addition with a restaurant patio overlooking the Muses. My impression is that the event this year was slightly smaller in scope than previously, with only one entertainment tent on the Christmas Tree side of the gardens, and with the food trucks being deployed near that rather than down the walkway to Pegasus. In addition there were no fire-pits for s'mores, which I had been looking forward to. The weather was pretty good: Crisp, but not so cold that my hands froze taking pictures, and there was a spectacular full moon.

There are still a good number of nights you can catch the festival during the rest of the year. You can (and must) get tickets at

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For various reasons, I have been unable to get back to the Carolina Renaissance Festival in Huntersville for the past five years or so. Perhaps next year. In the meantime, I have been able to go to the Mythical & Medieval Fest in Socastee last year and this year.

It's definitely a smaller event, but still a nice way to spend an afternoon. In the event, Saturday was the last warm day in November, apparently, and I did not even need a sweater to be out and about on the grounds -- a far cry from this week!

I took in the saucy songs, juggling acts, broad comedy and fire dancers as well as checking out all the vendors. I would say that there seemed to be less local food this year. I had found some good local salsa last year, but did not see that farm booth Saturday.

The Sun News reports that the biker bar "The Rat Hole" has closed, and I infer that the event space for the festival, "RH Acres", was connected with that, so I am not sure if the festival will have a spot to unfold next year. We will have to see. At any rate the show is on for next weekend as well, so if you happen to be in the area, it's worth a look!

When I mentioned that Old Chicago in this plaza had closed, I neglected to say that the across-the-parking-lot neighbor, Flapjacks Pancake Cabin had also closed. You will remember that this location was a former Western Steer which then became a strip-club. At the time there was speculation that the (then) new Wal-Mart was pressuring the city to de-zone the club to make the area a bit more family friendly, and it appears that Flapjacks didn't exactly leave under their own steam either. This Facebook is all rumors, but it appears that the plaza owners have non-restaurant plans for that wing of the property.

In the event, Flapjacks was there for about ten years. Here is the Sun News on the place moving in. (Notice that the original plan for the Old Chicago spot was a Quaker Steak & Lube, which never happened).

The chain still exists, and now appears to be restricted to Tennesse. For now, you can still see their Garden City page here.

That does beg the question on the location. Google & the street address say this is Murrells Inlet, but to me it is pretty clearly Garden City.

UPDATE 7 October 2025: Found a picture of the lighted sign and added it up top.