Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well the State Fair has come and gone. No big surprises this year. The retro swing ride at the intersection of the central way and the North Midway corridor is still gone. I guess it won't be coming back. Somehow the baby duck slide survived another year, and we had some new greasy goodness with doughnut-burgers and Wisconsin fried cheese curds. Aprt from the sky ride, the Bumper Cars were the only place I spent my tickets this year, and there's (somewhat badly focused) video of that below. Those issues (really time for a new camera) are apparent in the skyway video above as well, but I think it gets the spirit of things.

As for the rest, if you've followed these posts, you know what I like, and I liked the same things this year. It's always nice to be out and about on the grounds after sundown!

Next year is coming..

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I meant to get back, get out of the car and get some decent pictures, but in the event I never did. At any rate, Midlands Tech was doing some demolition on the Rosewood side of the campus recently. It looks like they're putting up a "Midlands Technical College Center For Business and Information Technologies". Anyone know what they took down?

The Broad River Road location of Philly Pretzel Factory closed in October of 2020, but this location, in the Publix plaza on Rosewood, soldiered on for another two years. As far as I can tell from their final Facebook posting, 30 December was the last day here.

I believe I only went by this store once -- I was expecting a buttery pretzel like Auntie Anne's, and found these a bit dry. Also, the parking was a little sparse on that side of the building.

Here is a very brief State story on the closing.

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

This open-air hotdog & hamburger stand was formerly Charlie's Barber Shop and then Pelican's Snoballs (which moved up the street).

They have another location, which is still open at 655 Saint Andrews Road in the former Tripps Fine Cleaners storefront.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

I've done two closings for Eric's San Jose, one at the infamous 2630 Decker building, and one in 2016 for the immediate predecessor to this location on the far side of Target from this building.

Aside from Eric's, this building has also housed, at least, Moe's Grapevine, and Rooftop Piza Pub.

I believe I have been to this operation twice, once in the old location, and once at this one. I thought it was fine, but no better than Casa Linda which is closer to me, and the menu seemed pretty small. I think I went there a third time when I expected it to be open and found it closed, and got it in my mind that the hours were a bit odd. I haven't seen any official reason for the closing, and I don't see a web site or facebook page, but I know the nearby Lizard's Thicket was having staffing issues, so it's possible that played a part here as well.

We'll have to see what is next for this building. Since it won't be a Lizard's, and it's already been a Mexican restaurant, perhaps an Asian buffett?

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

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I don't know much about Graph-Itti except that they a screen-printing and embroidery shop, and had been in this Rosewood location for a good while.

According to their Facebook page, they moved from here to 3620 North Main in August of this year.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

To the best of my memory, I was only in this bank once. And it was fine, you know -- a bank.

On their window sign, they try to spin this closing as a move, but of course the branch farther up the road was already there. Hopefully the staff were able to go to other branches, but this is a closing. The sign is a bit unusual as well in that it doesn't give a date, which these things usually do.

I'm not sure how this address can be 4800, as this is the first block of Garners Ferry Road, but that transition area has always been a bit odd.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Base 10 Fitness was the follow-on operation in this building to Rosewood Florist. According to The State, they moved from the Fairgrounds area to this location sometime in the spring of 2018. Here are a few more details from a real estate site.

While I don't see anything online as to the cause of this closing, I would guess that COVID-19 was the proximate cause.

(Hat top to commenter MB)

I noticed the other day that this old McDonald's at the corner of Assembly & Rosewood across from the Fairgrounds is vacant. The last tenant was University Motor Company, which apparently moved in sometime around 2010, and in 2018 merged with Bluff Road Auto Sales with the combined operation at 1400 Bluff Road.

UPDATE 3 February 2023 -- Now Lyon's General Store: