Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This building was built as a McAllister's Deli, and most recently before Chicanas was Allena's Southern Kitchen which closed in 2023. Chicanas apparently moved into the location from somewhere on Spears Creek Church Road, something I did not know until reading the media articles, and set up in 2025, lasting about a year.

None of the stories give the exact cause of closure, but judging from the door sign, they initially had some hopes of continuing. In the event, I had this place on my mental list of restaurants to try, but with closer options during the week and usually hitting other parts of town on the weekends, never got around to it.

Although clearly a lot of the furnishings have been moved, there are still a good few remaining, and there is not yet a for-sale sign on the property, so what will happen next is not clear.

You can read about it in The State, The Post & Courier or at ColaDaily.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

Overstock moved into this location sometime after Bed Bath & Beyond went under in 2023. Now they are closing as well. Their Facebook doesn't give any end date, but apparently the final to-the-walls sale is in progress.

This building at the corner of Sparkleberry & Graces Way was built as a McAlister's Deli. After they moved down the road, it was a Famous Toastery, and Alleana's was the follow-on to that.

I don't have a definite date for the closing, but the Google reviews have dates like "A year ago", so I am going with 2023. I will note that a consistent feature of those reviews is a note that the place was not open when it was supposed to be. This is a subcase of Rule #1, and is never a good sign.

Currently a Mexican restaurant is setting up in the space.

The chain filed for Chapter 11 in August, but couldn't find a buyer, and is now winding down all stores. Looking at the linked article it appears they should all be gone by the end of the year, taking them down from 400 stores to 0.

This particular store is fairly new, being the follow-on operation in this storefront to HobbyTown USA which moved in 2018.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

This place was the follow-on in this original Carrabba's building to Fiery Crab, whose signage was never taken down (granted, that would be an unpleasant & dangerous task).

When it started, it was billed as Vegan & Ghanian Fusion, but apparently they tried to go more mainstream later. I'm also not sure how the "Jazz Lounge" part comes into play as none of the reviews mention music.

It's possible they moved to another part of the store -- I was just running in and out, but it appeared to me last week that the Starbucks in the Sparkleberry Square Kroger was gone.

UPDATE 16 September 2024 -- Apparently they closed their existing kiosk to remodel and make a larger in-store space, whic is now open:

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Apparently First Horizon is merging with Iberiabank, which may have something to do with this location closing. It looks like there are two left in town, on Main Street and in Trenholm Plaza. The Trenholm location is in a building across from Starbucks and is a building that has reflagged several times in recent years.

This location is in the Publix plaza at the corner of Two Notch and Sparkleberry. Commenter Thomas reports that it was previously a Wachovia.

(Hat tip to commenter thomas)

UPDATE 22 May 2023 -- This is refitting to be a Chase branch:

I did not get around to getting pictures of this Sparkleberry Square Firehouse Subs location (sometimes known as Firehouse Subs Spring Valley) until all the signage was down and the building was fenced off. It seems likely to me that it is to be torn down though there are no signs up for whatever is to come.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

UPDATE 28 January 2022 -- The canopy for the forthcoming Kroger gas station is up:

UPDATE 22 February 2022 -- Well the Kroger gas station is up and running. That was pretty quick!

While I was getting hot doughnuts on Clemson Road, I noticed that Landy's Pharmacy in the Krispy Kreme plaza is building a new home on Sparkleberry Lane ajacent to Sparkleberry Crossing.

The lot with the new building used to have a stand-alone ATM with a horseshoe drive-through lane, but that was many years ago. Both the current location and this one are a bit odd as they are quite close to a CVS, but I think this site will have a little better access (and, of course, is bigger).