Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I see that I haven't posted about Columbia's Greek Festival since 2014 for some reason. I generally try to go by if I am in town, and it's always a nice experience. This year, I didn't really have time to do much more than swoop in, grab some goodies and swoop out again, but Saturday was a beautiful day, and there was a good crowd of people enjoying the food, booths & music. In the event, I'm glad I did go Saturday even though I didn't have as much time as I wanted since Sunday was an awful, rainy day, and that had to have put a damper on the festivities.

I ate at this Pizza Hut several times over the years while hanging around Baptist Hospital for various reasons. Like the books you read in a hospital waiting room, meals you eat in a hospital context are never really that good, but I suppose it was a standard Pizza Hut, well enough executed.

The move to the old Church's Chicken location should give them some parking, and some traffic from the development that is replacing the old Gonzales Gardens. Curiously, they will still be near a hospital as well. The long period between closing this location and opening that one does seem kind of odd though.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Indah Coffee Company has closed their Arcade Mall location on Main Street to concentrate on their Sumter Street store.

Commenter Larry supplies the information (seconded by WLTX that somehow Takosushi will be using this vacancy as well as the nearby Pita Pit vacancy to come back in some sort of two headed configuration.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

This chocolate & pecan gift shop was on Sumter north of Elmwood, not too far from the former Citta del Coton pizzeria. I was not really aware of it, but looking at their web site there is some tasty looking stuff there.

Neither their facebook nor twitter has a post explaining why they closed the physical store, but given the 'conditions what prevail', I certainly suspect COVID-19 played a part.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

LoopNet says this nice little building on the corner of Laurel & Sumter streets was built in 1950. Given its rather art-deco look, with rounded corners and inset glass blocks, I would have guessed earlier myself. These drive-by pictures, taken through the windshield, aren't great, and the color scheme in the LoopNet picture is better as well, so take a look there if you are curious.

The last tenant was Print House Plus who have moved to 1519 Taylor Street.

This old Synovus branch at the corner of Sumter & Pendleton Streets really never made an impression on me. I'm sure I couldn't have told you it was there had you asked, and the building dates to 1972, so I would have walked by there many times while I was on campus.

My phonebooks aren't really helping me to say when it closed, but obviously long enough ago that it's already looking a bit dingy, and the lot has already been rented out for parking.

You can see it with the NBSC branding still up in this LoopNet listing.

UPDATE 25 August 2020: I forgot to put a date on the post title. Since the NBSC ==> Synovus reflagging happened in 2018, I'm going with that.

(Hat tip to commenter Dan R.)

UPDATE 4 February 2021 -- I went by the drive-through window, and a definite closing date was posted there, so I have updated the post title date from "2018" to "29 May 2020":

Also adding the map icon.

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I don't know if COVID-19 contributed to this closing or not, but I suspect it pre-dated all that.

Massey's was the follow-on operation in this storefront to Cabo Fresh Taco & Anthony's Past Time Cafe. If you visit that link, you will see that Massey's basically used the same signage (and name) as Anthony's, so there may have been a transfer of ownership in there somewhere.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I was unaware of this newish pizza joint until commenter Heath mentioned that it was closing. It's down the section of Sumter Street north of Elmwood, someplace I hardly ever go. Apparently a co-owner made himself notorious on social media recently and that hurt business, or at least that's the take at The State. Well, I don't do social media, so I missed all that, and anyway apparently that gentleman is no longer involved with the restaurant, so I decided I would check it out before it closes on Saturday.

It's a very small place, with only one lowtop table that I would pick as a favorite, but there is also some bar and hightop seating. You order at the counter, but they do bring the food to the table. They are fancy enough that they don't have pepperoni as an ingredient, so I ordered the Pizza Margherita (pictured above). I thought it was pretty good. The crust could have been a little crisper, and I whould have preferred a basil leaf on each slice, but it was quite tasty. I could never be a regular here because they do not have fresh brewed tea, but they do have some beer, wine and bottled drinks.

Here are stories on the closing from The Free Times and Cola Daily

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I was not really aware until recently that Sumter Street crossed Elmwood, but Dave's Transmission was on that end of Sumter, and more or less behind the old Jim Moore Cadillac property.

The Free Times says that the property is to become a restaurant, although details were sparse at the time of the article. Just looking at the pictures, it seems to me parking might be an issue.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

I believe I may at one time have had swimming lessons at the downtown 'Y', though it is very hazy now. I remember for sure that I had Karate lessons there, something which my mother was in favor of to try and get me out of my books every now and then, and something which I personally hated (the same thing was true of Little League). In the event, I would sneak over to the neighboring RCPL when I was supposed to be in class.

I had not often thought of the 'Y' since then until my sister recently mentioned that it was moving from this historic building to a new one at 1447 Hampton Street.

According to the 'Y' website, that move is this weekend, and the new 'Y' should be open on Monday 11 July 2016.