Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Vampire Penguin on Percival by Panera is gone. My niece went there several times and liked it. I never went by myself, thinking it was just shaved ice, which I am not that keen on, but judging by the pictures on their Facebook, I may have missed out on some other frozen goodies.

This site still commemorates the opening of this store, while this Free Times article explains the closing. In short, it appears that the area was not what the owners had hoped and the sketchiness kept family business down. I have never had any actual trouble in the area, but have been panhandled several times at that Panera and have kind of stopped gong there myself.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

I never visited Abbott's, though one shop did suggest once that I take a transmission problem there. Luckily in the event, the problem resolved itself somehow and I didn't have to spend any money on it.

I believe the same family was connected with the Texaco down the road and that, going by their website, they continue to run the self storage units you can see in some of the pictures.

To me this building looks like a former convenience store. The LoopNet listing (which shows a nice shot with the Darrell's branding in place) says it was built in 1971 which seems about right.

I know nothing about Darrell's Place other than a google search turns up a State article detailing a three person stabbing at the place, while mentioning in passing an earlier shooting.

I will say the Yelp photos are unexpected. (If you go left or right from that link, you may hit something NSFW).

The current branding is for WFP which I can find out nothing about, though it also appears to be defunct.

After this place tried and failed to open as Nuvo Rest.Bar, it opened as Main Event Sports Bar.

Driving by several times recently during the hours you would expect a sports bar to be open, I have come to the conclusion this place is now gone as well.

That was pretty quick work. The pictures of the store in operation were taken on 9 October 2018, and by 16 October, the signage is down and the store is empty save for a few mattresses stacked against the front wall -- No closing sale, no bargains, just gone.

This is the second vacancy in the still fairly new Jackson Square (which replaced, most recently, Liquids Gentlemen's Club). Earlier in the year, the adjacent Tijuana Flats closed, and has yet to be replaced.

UPDATE 15 November 2021 -- Now a Club Champion gym:

UPDATE 13 December 2021 -- Here's the other side of the Club Champion:

When I did the closing for Latino's Bar & Grill in this location, it appeared they were setting up to open as an urban club Nuvo Rest.Bar. However, I don't think that ever actually happened. I could be wrong, of course, but I drive this stretch of Percival at least several times a month, and I don't recall ever seeing the building lit up under that name.

At any rate, they are now definitely open as Main Event Sports Bar.

UPDATE 28 March 2019: Add map icon.

My sister mentioned that she had heard this place was closing, so I was able to get some interior shots in advance of that last week. I wish I had gotten the hot sauce bar, which was an impressive array of pumps.

Initially, I wasn't quite sure what to make of Tijuana Flats (and kept thinking it was Tortilla Flats for some reason..). It wasn't like a Moe's or Qdoba building hand-held burritos, and it wasn't really a sit-down Mexican restaurant, but somewhere in between the two. I finally figured it out though, and liked the place pretty well. In the summer, the front sidewalk was generally in the shade by the time I would get there, and it was nice to eat outside. In the winter, I liked to go the the back of the store and sit in the sunshine coming through the back windows. My only real criticisms are that I thought they needed a drink stand so you didn't have to go begging for refills (which they were happy to provide, but it's a quirk of mine) and I thought they should go with the sit-down Mexican restaurant concept of free salsa with the chips.

I'm pretty sure this is the first closing for the fairly new Jackson Square strip mall, though of course the whole former strip mall on the site was closed and razed years ago. The Tijuana Flats Lexington location remains open.

(Hat tip to my sister)

UPDATE 13 December 2021 -- Now a Vampire Penguin:

Also adding map icon.

This local soul food restaurant apparently opened in 2015 and was active at least to June 2017. This stretch of Percival is on my route between home and the new Panera on Forest Drive, and I started wondering about the lack of cars at the place recently. Taking a closer look reveals no closing signage, but there is definitely work going on inside. I don't know if this is in preparation for a new tenant, or is an upfit for this restaurant.

I did a closing on this address when the Jiffy Lube shut down. In retrospect, that seems to have been a harbinger for the whole property. There is a nice little landscape of trees still on the corner, but other than that, pretty much everything else is gone. It is a bit amusing that the roadside coffee banners outlasted the buildings by quite a few days. I suspect probably the crews didn't bother to read them and assumed they belonged to the adjacent Sonic.

No clue yet what is planned for this lot, but it's a fairly valuable Interstate exit corner now, and just across from a successful new shopping/restaurant plaza.

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I think I have actually had service at this Jiffy Lube twice over the years, and I did stop there last summer when I needed the AC recharged in one of my cars and they were having an AC special but in the event they couldn't help me as the car was too old.

As commenter Matt mentions, the lot is definitely tight, and I too had trouble turning around and getting out that last time.

Somewhat, if not tremendously, interesting is that this building and the adjacent Kangaroo Express seem to share the same street address without any "suite" differentation.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)