Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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).

Solstice's web page says that they had been here 14 years; I don't know why I kept thinking of them as a new place. At any rate, during that 14 years, I never managed to make it out. I figured since I'm not really into wine, dinner might be overdoing it, but looking at their lunch menu from time to time, with some really nice looking soups, I thought I might try that someday. In the end, the hours and the distance never quite worked out -- now I wish they had.

Going by their Facebook farewell, this is another one in the COVID-19 column. There simply wasn't the money coming in, or the surety going forwards to carry on.

2020 strikes again.

(Hat tip to commenter Carlton Templeton)

I like the idea of breakfast, and the foods of breakfast. I just don't like the *time* of breakfast, so I never got to the Famous Toastery on Sparkleberry. This place was the follow-on operation to McAlister's Deli, which moved kind of around the corner and down to front onto Two Notch.

The State records the place as having opened on 20 January 2017, so they had a run of about two and a half years. If I can detect a trend in the Yelp reviews it would be that the place may have been struggling a bit towards the end.

The State also reported that the downtown location which was supposed to open last year in the Main Street Atlanta Bread location was cancelled.

I wonder if the Spring Valley High School morning traffic was a factor here? The location doesn't seem that bad to me (though Carrabba's would beg to differ), but I don't go by when school is starting or letting out.

(Hat tip to commenter Bobby)

UPDATE 1 September 2021 -- Now Allena's Southern Kitchen: