Columbia Closings   What’s not in Columbia anymore

The Rolling Stone was the follow-on operation to End Zone Grill on Rosewood just up from the Fairgrounds.

It got some publicity last year for getting into a spat with representatives of the music magazine of the same name over trademark issues. I guess that was settled, as neither the bar nor the magazine changed its name. I never stopped by, but it looks to have had a nice setup, with an outdoor stage and movie screeen and a bonfire pit. I have to say though, that the tree by the front left of the building is by far my favorite feature.

The place has just reopened as a barbecue operation, The Southern Belle.

(Hat tip to commenter Dennis B.)

It seems to me that I recall this place on the corner of Harden and Rosewood being a TV repair place at one time. Certainly Kiddie Korner was far from the first operation there, though to date, it seems to have been the last.

The last time I noted this Rosewood Drive location, it was about the 1950s era local grocery chain Edens.

At that time, the building was occupied by bodyFit gym. The next time I noticed the place, it had rebranded as another gym, Jamie Scott Fitness which itself was in the process of relocating to the new Crosshill Market (The Whole Foods strip mall). This was slated to have happened by 1 December, so they should be there now, though I have not gotten over there yet to get pictures of the new location.

As you can see in the first pictures, the bodyFit location had a banner with both names on it, so I surmise that they were in the early stages of changing the name then (late 2010).

UPDATE 9 January 2013 -- Here is the Cross Hill location. As commenter Dennis notes, you have to go around behind the building into a bit of a cul de sac to get to it:

Judging from the reviews and menu, I think I might have liked The Tap Room though I rarely eat in the Rosewood Area. The building is somewhat interesting as it is on a steeply sloping lot at the corner of Rosewood and South Holly. From the Rosewood side, it looks like a two story building at street level, but from the South Holly side, you can see the third level below Rosewood.

(Hat tip to commenter Midnight Rambler)

(Folks coming in from the link at the CarnivalWarehouse.com forum, you may be interested in my pictures from previous South Carolina State Fairs -- Ted)

Well, as always, the South Carolina State Fair was a good time, with lots of beautiful art, greasy food, neon in motion and oddball retail. If you've read one of these posts before, don't expect anything particularly new this year; it's pretty much the same sights I usually enjoy capturing. I didn't submit anything for the art exhibition this year, so no pictures of the pre-Fair ceremony.

I've got a couple of videos I'll add later as soon as I can get them uploaded to youtube. In the meantime, enjoy!

UPDATE 27 October: First video (cablecars) is uploaded above.

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This little building on Rosewood Drive near the former Keg O' Nails was obviously a family house in the beginning. Apparently used appliance store Rosewood Appliance Center was there for around 25 years, lasting at least until 2010.

I'm not sure of the order of the follow on businesses, though I suspect that Artshack was the most recent (and which almost must be related to Art Shack Gallery Cafe). I'm quite puzzled by the fact that googling "3000 Rosewood Dr" consistently turns up Rosewood Elementary School. Clearly this building is *not* the nearby District One school. All I can think is that either A) This is a complete error that has been propagated from one web site to another or B) The school at one time leased this building as an overflow office or some such.

OK, you know the drill by now if you've followed my State Fair posts from previous years: I like what I like, and I like to take pictures of it, so there's nothing new or astounding here, just old friends like the Buxom Beer Girl, The Cotton Candy Stands and the ducklings, but I enjoyed being out and about amongst the neon and greasy delights as usual. I took the tripod, but really couldn't get into setting it up to try for HDRs this year, so I just got one, which is not as good as those from last year (2010). I did take a few videos this year, in particular the one above (which has some issues with light spikes, but is quite watchable) and one below the jump.

Meet your party at the (Time Warner) rocket!

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I noticed this old-school barber shop on Rosewood a few months ago as I was headed down towards Assembly. It looks like it has that kind of electrical, revolving, barber pole that you used to see quite a bit, but hardly at all nowdays.

I'm just guessing at a 2010 closing date, but I think it would have caught my eye before if it had been much longer than that.

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Commenter south mauldin asked a little while ago if this place were closed. At the time I wasn't sure -- I had driven by and the lot was empty, but I didn't have time to stop and check it out. The next time I went by, there was no doubt, with a For Sale sign by the road and a goodbye message on the whiteboard. That message mentions a three year run -- Somehow I thought it had been a good deal longer than that.

When I got out and looked around, I was actually rather impressed by the lot. There are some nice trees, and a stream runs along the front of the property providing a bit of lush greenspace insulating the place from the next lot over. I think the building could definitely use some windows on the front though, as it seems like it would get a bit claustrophobic in there.

While I was googling the place, I ran across this interesting thread on another blog, The Columbia Cheeseburger Crawl on Epicurious Eats. They sample the burgers at a number of Columbia's off-the-beaten-trail hideaways and render a verdict. Even though the crawl was just last year, both End Zone and Palmetto Sandwich Shop are already gone.

(Hat tip to commenter south mauldin)

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