Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I don't have much to say about this closing, just that the onwership of this Blaze was the same as the one at Sandhill, and it closed on the same date with the same note.

This has already been discussed extensively in Have Your Say but B Mac's Buffet which opened on 8 August 2025, in the old Copper River Grill location, unexpectedly closed on 26 August, 18 days later.

Here is a State story on the news that the place would be moving in. In retrospect, there are a number of red flags on display.

The State covers the actual opening here here.

You can read about the closing at WLTX.

(Hat tip to a number of commenters, but I believe commenter Tom made the first definitive 'This place is closed' mention.)

Sometimes it seems as though restaurants go through phases, and for a while the "build-your-own-pizza" phase was hot. I never went to Blaze, but I have been to Mod, and I understand that it's a similar experience: You go through a line like you are building a buritto except it's a pizza, and after you have all your toppings they quick-fire it and there you go.

It's a concept that has been going through some tough times as Mod went through bankruptcy recently and closed locations, 1000 Degress never got here, and now all the Midlands Blaze locations have shut down.

Blaze is not the first restaurant to close in this storefront, back in 2013, it was Al Amir with the place sitting vacant, I believe, until Blaze moved in in 2016.

Here is the story in The State & The Free Times.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

This place is now called Veneziano's. Looking at the Google reviews, it's hard to say exactly when this happened, but apparently the ownership changed about a year ago, and the name probably changed around October of 2024. I had eaten several times at Papa Gio's, and it was not my favorite place. I found that consistently the garlic knots had very little or no garlic on them, and since they did not have 10 inch pizza, I would order a calzone, which would generally have cold ricotta in the filling.

I decided to try Veneziano's, and found the interior much the same with the exception of some tables being removed in the area directly behind the hostess stand. Service was good and friendly, but I still found that the garlic knots had no garlic, and the calzone was filled with chilled ricotta...

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:

I mentioned this was happening earlier, but Brooklyn Express Pizza & Pasta has now completed their move from Friarsgate Plaza to this (now upfitted) freestanding Ed Robinson building.

New York Pizza & Pasta was the follow-on in this little US-1 building to another pizzeria, Palmono's, which was a follow-on to Reds On Augusta.

According to their Facebook they appear to have closed on 31 August. The menu looks decent, but I was never in the area at the right time to try it out.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

Staying in the same area as yesterday...

BGR8 dojo was the follow-on in this roundish building to at the corner of Broad River Road and Royal Tower Drive to Ed Robinson cleaners. Judging from the state of construction at the site, it has been at least several months since they moved to 130 Hunter Village Drive, so I am just going to put a late 2023 date on this.

As for that construction, it appears that Brooklyn Express pizza is moving from Friarsgate Plaza into this building:

Village Idiot is the follow-on operation in this storefront to Paulie's Pizzeria, which succumbed in 2009 to a kind of "If we have ingredients today, maybe we'll make pizza" syndrome. I never found the space a good sit-down restaurant in that incarnation, and since I never really warmed to Village Idiot in Five Points, I never tried this location.

The chain remains ongoing, but with the sale of this strip-mall, and the end of their lease coming up, they decided not to continue in this location.

The State has the story here, as does the Free Times here. I'll note that The State describes Forest Acres as ritzy, which is not a word I'd ever associated with our little community before.

The closing date is not firmed up yet, but will be by the end of the year.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

UPDATE 11 February 2025 -- Now Morelia Gourmet Paletas. Paletas are apparently some sort of popsicle: