Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Usually I can bring up *something* about a building via Google, but not in this case. In fact, looking at StreetView, it has apparently been vacant as far back as 2008. It's a bit of a shame as it's an interesting building with that odd rise on the left side and the stone roof facade over the rest of the front.

Ironically one of the hits I *do* see for it is this May 2016 press release about the "CEZ/City Of Columbia Vacant Abandoned Building Incentive Program (VABIP)". I'm thinking it was not one of the more successful civic efforts.

Here is the little that LoopNet has to say about the building.

If anyone knows what it was, I will update the post title to reflect that.

UPDATE 13 February 2025 -- As noted above, the post title here was originally just "Building" as I had no idea what it had been. Thanks to everyone's input I have updated that with a variety of names.

Hook Fish & Chicken is aparently a chain of sorts, though it's not clear to me that all the locations are closely related. At any rate, they were the follow-on operation in this building at 3600 River Drive to Lamb's Bread. Going by their Facebook page, they moved in January of this year to the row of shops on Colonial Life Boulevard which houses The Melting Pot:

We are more than happy to announce we will be back up and running THIS Saturday, January 14th.
We are coming back stronger than ever with a new partnership with KrabKingz! Come and see us at 1410 colonial life blvd Columbia sc 29210!!
We know you missed us, because we missed you!!!!!!! See y’all Saturday!

I didn't realize when I took the pictures that they had moved, or I would have tried to get some shots of the new location.

Here is The State on the opening in March of 2022.

UPDATE 19 June 2023 -- Here is the Krab Kingz location on Colonial Life:

UPDATE 1 October 2024 -- Hope springs eternal. Now River Grill House Of Pizza. I can't find any online presence, but House Of Pizza restaurants are traditionally run by Greek families:

UPDATE 5 February 2025 -- River Grill & Pizza is now open:

This space on River Drive has been a number of things since I started keeping track, moving from automative related businesses to restaurants. Lambs Bread was the follow-on here to Vibes, which closed in late 2018. As far as I can tell, Lambs Bread was open into late summer of 2020, and got generally good reviews. There was no real-estate sign on the property when I stopped by, so I'm not sure what is next for this property.

UPDATE 27 June 2022 -- Now Hook Fish & Chicken Of Columbia:

I never did get any good daylight shots of this place, but the First Citizens in the North Main/River Drive triangle has gone to ATM only. Given they will still be paying rent/lease/taxes on the whole lot, I don't expect that situation to last too long.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 20 October 2022: Updating tags.

Vibes Restaurant was priming to open when I took those first two shots, apparently in March 2018, for the Dimp's closing. If you click on the street address tag below, you will see that this building has been a number of things over the past decade, with none of them sticking very long. Hopefully Lamb's Bread will have better luck. It's certainly a new concept for what has been mostly a diner.

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.

UPDATE 21 September 2021: Adding map icon.

Commenter Justin noted a while back this this River Drive conenience store has closed. I was not aware of the place, but it is actually fairly well placed as I cannot think of another one nearby. The next closest would be the one at the top of the hill on the other side of the river I believe.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 19 January 2018 -- Here's a bit of a further back view:

UPDATE 28 September 2021 -- The addresses don't completely match,3810 vs 3806, but I'm pretty sure this spot is now a CK Mart:

Also adding map icon for 3810.

I noticed the other weekend that 3 Point Cafe & Grill, the follow-on to Buck's Cafe, on River Drive had now closed and that a new restaurant was in its place: Dimp's Cafe & Grill. That makes three restaurants into this spot since it was remodeled. Hopefully this one will stick around for a while.

UPDATE 21 September 2021: Adding map icon.

Well, this is the end of an era. Edna's on River Drive predates me into this world by something over a year, so has been a Columbia institution longer than I've been alive. Of course, it has been an institution in a part of the town we used to think of as far away, so if we ever ate here growing up, it was long enough ago, and infrequently enough that I can't remember it. I'll have to try to remedy that before 31 March.

This kind of walk-up, no inside dining restaurant used to be common. In fact that's the way I recall Bell's and the original Garners Ferry McDonald's. Nowdays it is much less common, though you can still see remnants of the style, now worked around, in Zesto and Dairy Bar. I love the common-sense practicality of the cement blocks shorter customers can stand on to bring them up to window level.

Edna's also had an affiliated located at 2200 Two Notch Road, in a building that is still there, and a third location off Forest Drive, which was razed some years ago.

Here is a nice appreciation of Marie Rose Tyner, who ran the restaurant for many years and passed in the summer of 2015.

Read the rest of this entry »

Pretty plainly a service station at one time, this building at the intersection of River Drive, Sunset Drive and Clement Road had most recently been a title loan operation before Buck's Cafe moved in.

I presume that the cafe was associated with Buck's Market catty-cornered across the intersection, but I don't know that for a fact. I believe Buck's opened here in 2014, closed for remodeling around the end of that year and then re-opened in 2015. Somewhere I have some pictures of the restaurant in operation, but as usual, cannot put my hands on them right now.

The follow-on operation to Buck's is the aptly named 3 Point Cafe & Grill which judging from the sign is a "home cooking" type of restaurant.

UPDATE 21 September 2021: Adding map icon.