Columbia Closings   What’s not in Columbia anymore

I’ve eaten at Damon’s a few times, first I believe in Litchfield Beach at The Exchange in a space which is now a church, and later in Augusta. I’m not particularly interested in ribs, but as I recall they had good burgers and some sort of deep-fried onion-loaf. If I’m remembering correctly, the only thing I didn’t like about the place was they had little teeny-tiny napkins that were really wash-cloths.

That’s Damon’s in general — this particular Damon’s I never got to. Given the location, if I was in the area and craving a burger, I would more likely cross the street to 5 Guys.

It is a nice location though, and it looks like they had a patio which would be very pleasant evenings this time of year. According to LoopNet, the building is being sold as a fully kitted out restaurant, and in fact the Damon’s franchaise itself appears to be still available for the right offer.

(Hat tip to commenter Steve)

1101 Harden Street was the address for PT’s Cabaret, The Punch Line and Greenstreets as well as a gaggle of other businesses over the years including tax preparers, nightclubs, eateries, and military recruiters.

The building sat on the corner of Harden and Senate Streets (a corner I believe many people would be surprised exists..) across from Time Warner Cable and next to Food Lion. The ongoing demolition is supposed to result in a Cook Out restaurant being built, and although it was a separate address, the old Bob Andrews Motors building was also knocked down as part of the project.

Lots of pictures from three different days follow..

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“What Good Is Sitting Alone In Your Room?”

Actually until the last year or so, I didn’t even know there was a drag cabaret in Columbia. I think I had kind of a vague idea that a nightclub was in Punch Line location, but I figured in Five Points it was probably a college hangout.

The building is PT’s was in never seemed to really thrive. It’s at the way outside edge of Five Points, and aside from The Punch LIne, I can’t recall ever stopping there. The address for PT’s is Harden Street, but the building also fronts on an odd little section of Senate Street which is totally unconnected with the rest of Senate Street. (Come to think of it, the State House also cuts off Senate Street, so it actually has three discontiguous segments.)

The Free Times says the next tenant in the PT’s space will be a burgers and milkshake operation, soooo..

“Right This Way, Your Table’s Waiting..”

UPDATE 25 July 2010: OK, the PT’s building at 1101 Harden Street has now been demolished. See the link for details.

When I was growing up, comedy was something distant. You saw it on Ed Sullivan, or The Tonight Show if you got to stay up that late. There were a lot of classic comedy bits I would hear from time to time on WIS. Bill Cosby’s “Noah? Build me an ark….. Right!” was a favorite as was a Tim Conway prison-warden routine and Alan Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”. I know there were travelling comedians in the days of Vaudeville and burlesque, but all that was long gone by the 60s and the idea that you could go pay money and go see someone do comedy was kind of alien to me. That was TV stuff.

Then The Punch Line opened in Five Points in this odd little strip mall next to the old Sears building. I’m not now totally sure of it’s location in the building, but I think it was in the space now occupied by PT’s Caberet.

As always, I’m fuzzy on dates, but I believe The Punch Line started in the mid-80s. I’m pretty sure I was still an impecunious college or grad-student at the time, and then started working in Fayetteville, so in the event, I only ended up going to one show there. It was a total introduction to the format for me: Local guy, feature and finally headliner. I can’t remember who I saw, but it was certainly the hardest I’d ever laughed (over an extended period) in my life!

I don’t know what happened in the end. It seems to me that Five Points would be a natural for a comedy club, but The Punch Line folded, and the new venue The Comedy House set up shop in a distinctly non-entertainment-district, non-foot-traffic location off of St. Andrews Road (followed by a move to Decker Boulevard — also a non-entertainment-district non-foot-traffic location). As far as I know, that’s currently “it” for regular comedy venues in Columbia. Charleston seems to be a much more fertile area with The Have Nots in their own theater and regular events such as The Charleston Comedy Festival.

UPDATE 25 July 2010: OK, the old Punch Line building at 1101 Harden Street has been demolished. See the link for details.