Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Back in March, I found myself driving to the beach on the North route, and much earlier than usual so that it was still daylight when I hit Florence. Just East of Aynor the road conditions sign was declaring heavy traffic ahead on US-501. I doubted that was really the case so early in the year, but decided to take the way-North route of SC-22 and finally get a chance to hit Rossi's Italian for dinner, something I had been meaning to do for many years, but, generally being on the South Strand, had never gotten around to.

Well, it seems I should have gotten around to it earlier as I found the place gone.

A media search found two stories on the closing, one from WFMB and one from The Sun News.

Apparently Rossi's closed in November of 2017 due to issues with the management of the Galleria plaza, where the restaurant had been located since its opening in 1983. The plan was to reopen at 7753 N. Kings Highway in April of 2018, but for some reason that never happened. I did find one Facebook reference to them pledging to "Try again", but nothing seems to have yet come to pass.

I guess if I have learned anything writing this blog, it's that when you think I ought to get around to that someday, you're asking for trouble if you don't.

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After not being able to go last year due to scheduling issues, I was afraid that this year would be a bust as well, since it had rained all day Friday, and was just starting to drizzle again as we pulled into the Gardens. Fortunately, that quickly petered out, and the rest of the night was rain free (though the ground was saturated as I found to my squishy discomfort a few times I steppted off the paths).

The basics of the festival stay the same year after year: Lights in a garden full of beautiful trees and sculpture, but they change it up a bit for each new edition. In particular, this year the boat full of glass balls was new as was the Hogwarts train setting.

I learned something interesting about taking pictures of LED Christmas lights: Even though these are not "blinking" lights, if you push your shutter speed high enough, you may well catch the instant when they are off. This did not happen with the old incandescent bulbs. I'm not sure exactly what the mechanism is. I would have said they go on and off 60 times a second with the AC frequency, but clearly in some pictures one strand is off and another is not.

One thing the preceding days of rain did do was keep the temperature at a comfortable level. There have been years where I could barely work the camera because my fingers were numb, but not this year!

There are two days of the lights left: Saturday 22 December & Sunday 23 December. If you are in the area, you definitely should go. Tickets are at https://www.brookgreen.org/.

(If I get the time, I may go back and add some videos of the train setups).

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They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so at the time, Dave Thomas must have been very flattered.

Shortly after Wendy's came to town, a number of copycat restaurants popped up. They all had young girl mascots after which they were named, had square hamburgers and interiors set up with what at that time was Wendy's signature: One serving line. Unlike Burger King which was famous for letting McDonald's spend a lot of money finding ideal locations and then setting up across the street, these copy-cats tended to set up in smaller towns where there was, at the time, no Wendy's, or at least that's how I remember it. I'm pretty sure I recall chains called Judy's and Penny's (which I think had a restaurant in Georgetown which became El Cerro Grande before they razed it and built their own building). And then there was Cindy's Ole Time Hamburgers, which honestly I don't recall at all. Locating in Hartsville at the time would definitely be the setting up in a smaller market strategy though.

I haven't been able to find out much about Cindy's except that it definitely was a a Wendy's copy-cat and that its trademark was filed in 1976 (about the right time) and is expired. However, the chain still seems to exist in the Phillipines.

This particular location is at the intersection of US-15 & SC-151, and would have been basically in the boonies back in the day. It's still not what you would call a dense area. I may have the street address a little bit wrong, but it's close enough for Google Streetview to show the restaurant.

As you can see from the pictures, nobody else has ever set up shop here. In fact, I believe the place is now what you call a micro-clime which is uniquely suited for various plant life, though not so much for beef.

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I never actually ate at Rancho Grande, but I was aware of it as we would drive by on the way to visit relatives, and they mentioned eating there from time to time. I'm pretty sure the building started life as a national brand steakhouse, possibly a Western Sizzling.

Hartsville has urbanized to a surprising extent this millennium, but when this was built, the area was still quite rural and I'm sure the out-of-town location was chosen because it is at the intersection of US-15 Bypass and US-15 Business, something quite important before the Interstates.

The restaurant's Facebook page indicates that it closed around 17 May 2017, though I am unable to explain the wreath on the door which would otherwise indicate a post-Holiday-Season closing. The page also directs patrons to Neuva Villa which is apparently owned by the same family.

Commenter Andy Farmer asks about Jimmy Carter's in Marion. Here's what I remember, and have been able to find out.

First of all, we never went this way to the beach while I was growing up as access to the South Strand was easier through Georgetown. I guess the first time I ever came this way was sometime in the early 1980s when I was in college and going to the beach after visiting relatives in Hartsville. My memory is that the store had a big mural on one wall, probably the Southern wall, as that is the one you would see best going towards Myrtle Beach, depicting a toothy and widely grinning man, or possibly a toothy and widely grinning anthropomorphic peanut. This was of course a caricature of our then President, James Earl Carter who was often depicted in that way. I don't really remember anything but that image and the big signage for Jimmy Carter's. I could not have told you what kind of business it was. It was, however very distinctive, even apart from that, because it sits in the median of US-76/US-301, and this is the only area from Florence to the Beach where that is done.

This Reddit thread establishes Jimmy Carter's as mainly a fireworks store, though incorporating a greasy-spoon diner and various tourist trap merchandise. It also establishes that the owner really was named Jimmy Carter (I suppose hundereds of people must share that), that this was the second building in that location, and that Mr. Carter has passed away.

Once I moved to Fayetteville, I would come to the beach this way more often (if I were not going cross country from South Of THe Border), and at some point I noticed that Jimmy Carter's was gone, and the building now housed a strip club. I can't recall the name, and google is no help, but I think it might have been Paradise City. Then at some point later, the strip club apparently moved to the East side of the building, and the West side became an adult video store. This news story establishes that both of those businesses were gone by October 2015, and based on the facade peel back to the painted over Jimmy Carter signage, I'm thinking they actually closed several years before that.

This real estate flyer gives an address for the building (though somewhat ambiguously, and without a zip code) and has much better pictures than mine (which were taken under an umbrella) to include some interior shots. It also establishes the city location as Marion, which I would not have guessed, as I would put the place much closer to Florence, and that the Jimmy Carter's era was more than 40 years. I will also note that the map button is set to street view and also has a much better picture of the place than any of mine.

As one final note, the Reddit thread mentions that the logical successor to this store is Sparky's Fireworks & Gifts several miles further east and on your left. I second the notion, and you should stop there at least once.

(Hat tip to commenter Andy Farmer)

I noticed on one of my recent drives to the beach that the Golden Chick in Manning had closed. It appears to be very recent, and there is no closed sign posted, though some attempt to cover the logo has been made. If you look at the roadside marquee, you can see Sign #1 in play, which was apparently the only warning given.

Looking at Yelp it appears this store opened in 2014, which I believe is about the time the one on Beltline did. The reviews are mostly good, I'm not sure what happened, unless it was just a bit too far from I-95 to get the traffic it needed.