Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

This place is now called Veneziano's. Looking at the Google reviews, it's hard to say exactly when this happened, but apparently the ownership changed about a year ago, and the name probably changed around October of 2024. I had eaten several times at Papa Gio's, and it was not my favorite place. I found that consistently the garlic knots had very little or no garlic on them, and since they did not have 10 inch pizza, I would order a calzone, which would generally have cold ricotta in the filling.

I decided to try Veneziano's, and found the interior much the same with the exception of some tables being removed in the area directly behind the hostess stand. Service was good and friendly, but I still found that the garlic knots had no garlic, and the calzone was filled with chilled ricotta...

Discount Beer & Tobacco in the Luce strip mall on US-1 in Lexington is moving 1o 1600 West Main Street. This is several blocks East of the current location, and looks like it would be replacing perhaps Boost Mobile or Eagle Express at the corner of West Main (US-1) and Westside Drive.

Commenter Cats provides the closing date here, but the news has been out for a while. This site first featured here as a Bi-Lo, and for a while it looked like a successful bid to bring the IGA model into more urban territory, but in the event the one closer to Lexington closed in 2022, and this closure leaves Saint Andrews Road as their only location as far as I am aware.

(Hat tip to commenter Lavender)

I didn't get out to take a closer look as it was raining pretty hard, but commenter JamesR says this little antique and rummage shop on US-1 has closed due to the owner's retirement.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

New York Pizza & Pasta was the follow-on in this little US-1 building to another pizzeria, Palmono's, which was a follow-on to Reds On Augusta.

According to their Facebook they appear to have closed on 31 August. The menu looks decent, but I was never in the area at the right time to try it out.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

Looking at the Google Reviews, as well as the cafe's Facebook, it seems that O'Hara's was not making book as a table-service cafe, and tried converting to a counter-service bagel shop, which didn't bring in enough new traffic while alienating the existing clientele. This also invoved Rules #1 & #6.

The owners remain committed to the spot, and it sounds from the most recent Facebook post, that something new may be in the offing.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Commenter Heath notes that JC's Lexington Bowl has announced on their Facebook page that they are closing at the end of August. From the posted message, it sounds like they would rather not, but the economic times are just too rough. That's a shame, as they have been open since 1989.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I don't know anything about Belly's other than that it is a barbecue place, and is currently listed by Google as "Temporarily Closed". Their Facebook hasn't been updated since 2023, so there's no clue there, but according to commenter Beth reporting on some other Facebook traffic, they may not be coming back.

(Hat tip to commenter Beth)

Before I-20 came in, we would take US-1 through Camden whenever we would go to visit relatives in Hartsville. Often on those trips (or whenever we could nag successfully enough) our parents would let us stop for lunch at the Burger Family restaurant. In retrospect, there was nothing special about it, it was a standard hamburger stand in a town that didn't yet have a McDonald's, but it was someplace different, and that's what mattered. At this point, I can only recall three things about it: The manager had a hearing aide; the burger names were family themed: Papa Burger (the largest) , Mama Burger (more "normal" sized) and some kind of kids burger, the cute name of which I can't recall, and they always got something about the order wrong. It became a running joke with us.

After Burger Family closed, we switched to Hermes, which was sort of a Hardee's knock-off in a town that didn't have one of those either. Then, of course, I-20 came in, and we started taking that to Bishopville instead.

I am not absolutely sure this is the right building, but I have looked a number of times in Camden over the years, and this is the only one in about the right place, looking like it could have been there then, and have been a restaurant then, and which tickles vague memories. I could be wrong -- it was a *long* time ago.

I don't suppose this is a big surprise: We have all noticed Fatz closing locations without adding any new ones, but still I was expecting it to take longer.

The news came last week that the whole chain has shut down, with some reports of bankruptcy filings, though no actual links to such.

This store in Lexington was the last Midlands location, and I had never eaten there, but I would drive by from time to time, and observe that it seemed to be doing a reasonable business. In fact, as I was taking these shots, several cars wandered in, looking for a meal.

It's a good sized building, and there are already an Asian buffet and a San Jose in the general area, so we'll have to see what happens next here.

Here are stories on the chain closing shop in The Index Journal, The State & The Greenville Sun.

(Hat tip to commenter Alan)