Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Yoghut moved from its original location near the old Barnes & Noble in early 2014. The new location was on the other side of the plaza, just to the left of Outback.

As you can see from these (mixed) Yelp reviews, it was open until at least 1 July 2017. There is no sign on the door, so I assume that they have now closed rather than again relocating.

The Main & Blossom location is still open.

(Hat tip to commenter Michellle A)

Embers moved into the old Pie-Tanza location in this upscale little strip mall on Polo Road probably some time in 2014. In the event, I ate there once, and decided it was ok, but nothing special enough to make the drive. (I do recall that they had fixed the water pressure issues in the bathroom that had affected Pie-Tanza).

When I was out that way today to use the contract Post Office in the convenience store, I noticed a new nameplate on the building. The new tenant is Upper Crust, also a pizza establishment. Since their sign proclaims that they were founded in 2017 (17 March 2017 according to The State), that's what I will use as the closing date for Embers.

Wow, there's "remodeling", and there's "tear out everything down to the bare walls, and some of those too". This is the latter.

The State says:

Once renovations are complete [in fall 2017], the location will include increased parking, new exterior siding, state-of-the-art kitchen equipment and a remodeled dining room with new booths, Wi-Fi access and USB chargers.

Somehow Lizard's Thicket has never seemed like a USB charger kind of place to me..

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, often in these situations, the "closed for remodeling" rubric is more a vague hope than a description of something that will actually happen. However, Wet Willie's finally did come back, so who knows? The external indications are mixed: this location is gone from the company website, but the signage has not been taken down.

At any rate The Tilted Kilt replaced Huller's German restaurant in this location, opening in early 2014. The chain is a "breastaurant" concept like Hooters but with a faux Scottish flair. I only went to this location once, when I was looking for something open late that wasn't just burgers. They had some sort of mashed potato pie thing on the menu that looked like it would be a) Pretty good & b) Hard to mess up. Either one or the other of those assumptions turned out to be wrong, though the scenery was nice.

(Hat tip to commenter Zach)

UPDATE 20 June 2017: Removed the "(temporary?)" notation from the post title based on the comments and this State article

Not sure exactly when Allstar closed, but Columbiafoodienews says that Papa Gios was prepping this spot to open on 16 December 2016, so Allstar must have been closed for probably a month or more by then. I'm just going to say "Fall 2016".

I do love me some pizza, but I never made it to this spot. Lexington is a good drive, and if it were normal hours, and I were going that far, I would probably get some Parthenon style pizza at Pizzeria Opa or it it were later, Uno.

Interestingly, Papa Gios seems to have all its locations in Orlando and the Midlands, which is a fairly unusual distribution.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I used to eat frozen yogurt from time to time, but have pretty much quit. If I am getting a cold treat, I don't want a "fat free" anything, I want a "fat full" experience. Be that as it may, if froyo is your thing, it's not your thing here anymore.

(BTW, you always hear that the three most important words are 'I love you', but really it's 'Hot Doughnuts Now').

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Hat)

Apparently I never got around to doing a formal closing, though I did mention it in one of the flood posts, but Sakura Japanese Restaurant has been closed since they lost their storefront behind Coplon's to the great flood of October 2015.

Now it seems that they will be making a comeback in the former location of Fujiya Japanese Restaurant at the foot of Rosewood Drive. The State has the story here.

Here is Sakura in operation at its old location:

and here are a few pictures from not long after the flood:

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Northern Style Pizza replaced Touchdown's Wings & Things in this little Broad River Road endcap location, which had previously been a Sammi's Deli and probably a few other things before that.

The last Yelp review is from June of 2016, so I'm going with a "Summer 2016" closing date. The replacement operation, Papa Gio's, is also a pizza & Italian restaurant. Their sign says "Established 2007", so they must have moved here from another location, but not one I am familiar with.

There's been a bit of speculation on Have Your Say about whether D. L. McLaughlin's in Irmo is closed or not. Judging from the signage on the building, both of the practical "For Sale" and the sentimental "Thanks for the memories" type, and adding in the Facebook page, I think I can say that it definitely is.

In the event, I think I only ate here once. I was a fan of the old Sub Cabin in West Columbia, and this was either the follow-on or sibling to that operation, but even though it was good, it was just too far for me to go.

Anyone know the story of the archer on the coat-of-arms?

Speaking of Myrtle Beach megastructures, one of the most iconic was knocked down last fall: The Hard Rock Cafe pyramid at Broadway At The Beach.

There are tons of articles about this online. Here's one about time time capsule, here's one about the final days, and here's one about the demolition. I've seen it claimed in more than one of them that nothing was wrong with the pyramid, but you have to wonder: to abandon such a well known landmark just seems odd if there were no pressing issue.

In the event, I only ate there once, probably a year or so after it opened, and to be frank, I remember very little about it -- just that I thought it was overpriced for a pretty standard burger given that sitting close to Joan Jett's pants or whatever didn't do much for me. Sort of like Planet Hollywood in that respect I guess.

The new location a few doors down opened on 7 October 2016, but I have not seen it yet.