Archive for the ‘pizza’ tag
Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom, 2859 US-17 Business (Murrells Inlet): 30 November 2024 no comments
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:
Brooklyn Express Pizza & Pasta, 7949 Broad River Road: Fall 2024 (Moved) 3 comments
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 City Pizza & Pasta Factory, 4350 Augusta Road: 31 August 2024 3 comments
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)
BGR8 Martial Arts, 317 Royal Tower Drive: Late 2023 (Moved) no comments
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 Pizza, 4517 Forest Drive: December 2023 9 comments
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:
Scatori's, 1399 S. Commons Drive Suite A5 (Myrtle Beach): September 2023 no comments
To my memory, I only ate at Scatori's once, probably about five years ago, and it was fine, though not any better than my normal Strand pizza venues. I did think whenever I heard of it that the name was a bit unfortunate.
The Sun News says that the place had been open 15 years, which would have made it an early storefront in this shopping center, which I still think of as 'new' itself. The chef, who featured on TV's Cutthroat Kitchen has gone on to West Virgina to run a food truck which seems like an odd progression, but I guess that's what he wanted to do.
Both news articles say that Scatori's was sold in January (though it did not close then), but it appears that as of yet, the new owners have not done anything to the interior setup or furnishings.
(Hat tip to commenter Dan R)
Hungry Howie's, 6801 Saint Andrews Road Suite 15: 30 September 2023 1 comment
Aside from the Hungry Howie's in Myrtle Beach, this is the only other location for the chain that I was aware of. I'm not much for take-out, and of course it's all the way out in Irmo, so I never tried a Hungry Howe's pizza. Just from the web-site, it sounds like it could be pretty good: several of those crust flavors sound promising.
I am a little fuzzy on the details, and can't find anything online right now, but this location first came to my attention several years ago when the news broke that it had been sold to a rival chain. I don't know what happened, but obviously that deal never came to fruition, and operations continued for many years after that, until mid-September of this year, when it closed for repairs, a state which officially morphed into a permanent closure recently as reported on their Facebook page.
I notice that the store is not listed on the Quail Valley marquee. That seems pretty quick -- I wonder if it were ever there.
(Hat tips to commenters Heath, Andrew & Tom)
Pizza Hut, 1467 Sumter Street: May 2023 5 comments
I ate at this Pizza Hut several times over the years while hanging around Baptist Hospital for various reasons. Like the books you read in a hospital waiting room, meals you eat in a hospital context are never really that good, but I suppose it was a standard Pizza Hut, well enough executed.
The move to the old Church's Chicken location should give them some parking, and some traffic from the development that is replacing the old Gonzales Gardens. Curiously, they will still be near a hospital as well. The long period between closing this location and opening that one does seem kind of odd though.
(Hat tip to commenter Larry)
Showbiz Pizza / Ultimate California Pizza Game Zone, 959 Lake Arrowhead Road: Early 2020 5 comments
Ultimate California Pizza is one of the Grand Strand based Divine Dining Group's many concepts, and it's a good one. Their pizza is excellent, and they brew the iced-tea strong. I usually go to the one in Surfside Beach, but in the past I used to hit the ones in Murrells Inlet, or at Market Common fairly frequently. Unfortunely, those later two may feature here at some point as they are now gone.
I never made it to this one, in the Kroger-anchored Galleria plaza in North Myrtle Beach, though I kind of wish I had now, as it appears to have been their Chuck E. Cheese concept, except with more to offer adults. There are some quite nice pictures of the place on website, which is still up. I quite like this one. You can see the place in the daytime with the branding still up on the real estate listing. I find it quite amazing the the whole building is pegged at $11,250. Perhaps it's a typo.
As far as I can tell, it was COVID-19 that did them in. The last post on their blog is from March of 2020, and their last Facebook posts are from April of 2020, where at some point they mention combing operations with the Barefoot Landing location. The real estate listing apparently went up in mid July of 2020.
UPDATE 25 June 2023: There seems to be a consensus that this is a former Showbiz Pizza location as well, so I'm adding that to the post title. I barely ever got up here during the period mentioned, so I don't believe I ever saw it then.
Franco's New York Pizza, 3120 US-17 Business (Murrells Inlet): Early 2023 1 comment
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