Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

As mentioned several times in Have Your Say, the Chili's on Harbison has closed.

The story from Palmetto Weekend says they were unable to renew their lease, which argues that Harbison Court may already have something else planned.

I believe they were already winding down last week, as I went by at 10pm on Friday night, and they had already turned off the front facade lights by the time I drove around to that side of the building.

I used to go to Chili's fairly frequently, and still do like it, but my main reason was that it was a decent place that stayed open late every night. While they still do that in the Florida locations (or the ones I've visited), they no longer do that here, pretty much leaving that niche to Applebee's.

(Hat tip to commenter ED)

Mostly I knew Silver City from their old location at 906 Knox Abbott Drive. When I was a graduate assistant every Wednesday (I think it was Wednesday..) when the new comics came out, I would drive from campus to there and peruse the weekly haul.

They moved to this old Hardee's building closer to the river while I was living out of town. I did stop by several times, but by that point, I was getting my fix through a mail-order subscription service, so it wasn't quite the same, though the staff was quite pleasant and I did pick up some stuff.

According to their Facebook page the store's last day was 2 December 2017. When I took these pictures, I had a brief chat with the building owner who said that they were looking for a new tenant in the building as is rather than taking it down and starting over. I was glad to hear that, as these old Hardee's buildings are pretty thin on the ground now. After the razing of the one at Eggroll Station, this is the last in the Columbia area, and I believe the owner said there were only one or two elsewhere.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas S)

Joe Loves was the follow-on in this location to The Ship's Pub, which was the follow-on to Sam's Corner for which the building was built.

I noticed Joe Loves around New Years of 2018, and according to The Hilton Head Island Packet, it had opened here on 5 December 2017. What I did not know was that it had actually relocated from Ridgeland, which, if you look at the map, is quite a good distance away.

Given that the real estate sign mentions that the fixtures are all in place, I expect to see another restaurant here before too long.

Dimp's Cafe & Grill was the follow-on to several restaurants here at 3600 River Drive, including at least Buck's Cafe and 3 Point Cafe & Grill. I have not gotten around to eating at any of these so far.

I'm not sure when Dimp's closed, but I drive this stretch often enough that I think I would have noticed it before now if it were any longer ago than January or February of 2018. The place is now Vibes though they do not yet have a sign on the building itself.

Firenza is an interesting name for a pizza place because it suggests both "fire" and Italy (Firenza is the native name for the city we call by the exonym "Florence").

Fast casual pizza is now officially a thing, and Firenza is one of the chains in that market. This particular store, in Columbiana Station has not been here long. Commenter Heath reported in November of last year that this slot opened as a Persona Pizza and was just converting to Firenza at that point. Actually, Persona is the only one of these chains I have been to, and I was happy with my meal at the Woodhill location, so I'm not averse to checking out Firenza, Blaze or 1000 Degrees. Interestingly, as you can see in the pictures, there is a Blaze just across the street from this location.

Exactly what is going on here is a bit cryptic, but apparently it is an upfit of some sort and Firenza promises to return.

(Hat tips to commenters Heath & James R)

UPDATE 23 March 2018 -- Hmm, commenter Heath notes that apparently the place never actually opened as Firenza after Persona shut down. Maybe they got distracted by the Lexington opportunity. Anyway, I'm changing the title line qualifier from "(temporary)" to "(coming?)".

Well, one less now..
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Here's another Church's Chicken gone. This one is recent enough that almost the only sign that the place is closed is the fact that its not open: All the signage, drive through menus and fixtures are still in place.

That's a pretty good looking piece of pie.

(Hat tip to commenter Toby)

Nathan's/Chester's was the follow-on operation in this I-26 rest stop location to Maggie Mae's.

I'm wondering, since the closing sign is somewhat similar, if it were under the same ownership as the Dutch Fork Nathan's. I'm going with late 2017 as the closing date as the place is not yet fully stripped inside.

(Hat tip to commener Frank Mancuso)

Noticed this abandoned Hardee's on South Lake Drive/SC-6 at the I-20 intersection the other day. From what I can tell, Hardee's of Red Bank has relocated to 1910 South Lake Drive, inside a service station. I'm not sure when this happened, but judging from the codition of the building, it was a good while ago.

It sits on a surprisingly large lot, LoopNet says 2.09 acres of which apparently 1.6 acres is included with the building (which, would, I think, have to be razed at this point).

UPDATE 13 March 2018 Updating the closing date in post title from 2000s to Circa 2005 based on the comments.

My memory is a big vague, but I believe this restaurant (in the former Redbone Alley/Corky's building) actually started out as a San Jose, but that was causing some heartburn at the old Forest Drive San Jose which is now Pasta Fresca, so it was reflagged as Pancho's while still being in the San Jose family.

For whatever reason, that was undone on 7 March, and it is now officially a San Jose again (though some of the signs have yet to be changed).