Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

For some reason, the only Korean restaurant I've ever been too was in Korea. Given that I liked it well enough, I don't know why I haven't tried one again. That said, this building will always be Lizard's Thicket to me, as it was our go-to outlet for that chain for many years.

Googling doesn't turn up any media hits, but Reddit group ColumbiYEAH suggests the owners went back to Korea on vacation, and just decided to stay.

There's a bit of confusion as to the exact name of this place: I have gone with what the main google hit says.

(Hat tip to commenter Russell)

I never visited Royal India Bazaar, though I always assumed it was connected to the adjacent Village Of India, which I have eaten at and enjoyed.

Commenter Brandon says that it was there for at least 20 years (which would predate the restaurant) and was very nice to shop at.

I have always thought of this shopping center as the "Big Lots" plaza, but I guess I will have to change that mnemonic going forward.

(Hat tip to commenter Brandon)

Tiffany's moved to this spot in 2019, and took advantage of the larger footprint -- I would often see the billboard there mentioning evening events in the summer, and always wanted to go have supper there to see what it was like, but in the end did not and they have now closed the restaurant side of the bakery business (which still remains). I'm not sure exactly how this has shaken out as there is apparently still a cafe there with the bakery, but apparently that is now focused more on breakfast, coffee & pastry.

Here is The State story on the changes.

As reported by commenter Sidney, the Whiskey Kitchen house restaurant at the Delta Northeast on Two Notch is rebranding as a Mexican eatery: Dos Amigos. With a few notable exceptions, I have always found restaurants in hotels to be "eh..OK" in general. We'll have to see if this is any different, though as recent comments have pointed out, there is no dearth of Mexican restaurants on Two Notch..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

If you click on the pictures that come up when you google Collins Printing Two Notch, you'll see a number of them from five years ago with furniture labeled for sale, so I believe that was their final office clearance. Interestingly, Google thinks they are still in business at this location.

Also interestingly, and I'm sure totally unrelated to Collins, there is a huge, unmarked hole in the ground in between them and the former RAW Wheels & Tires.

It appears that Latino's Used Cars (and towing) has moved from this Two Notch storefront to 10531 Farrow Road, according to their Facebook.

Looking at Google StreetView, they had moved in by 2016, before which the building had been vacant for a number of years.

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)

RAW (Rent A Wheel) was in the old Huddle House location on Two Notch (though there is a discrepency in the address I have for Huddle House), and was the follow-up to Auto Image.

I'm not exactly sure when it closed, and I think there is still an AI robot on Google Reviews posting responses for the owner, but it appears to be sometime in the Spring. The embedded StreetView photo is from October of 2023). There is a nice aerial view of the property on LoopNet.

UPDATE 23 September 2024 -- More pictures:

I think this is closed. There is never any sign of activity when I drive by and the Facebook has not been updated for quite a while, but yet google reviews always has a couple of reactions from the last few months...

Anyway I'm calling it closed, and if anyone knows differently, let me know.

This was apparently also known as Best Western Plus Columbia Northeast and the rather generic Columbia Northeast Hotel, so perhaps it lost the Best Western branding in the last months of its life. Google streetview shows the place looking open, and with Best Western signage into May of 2024, but as of the end of June, when these pictures were taken, the place was closed with indications of some sort of work going on. (The Google reviews suggest it really needed some.)

I have not driven past since then, so perhaps it is open again or at least has some indication as to what is to come now -- I will have to check it out again soon.