Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I never made it to this building in any of its other incarnations besides Swensen's, but I did make it to Hunter Gatherer a few times. As I recall, I had pizza and some sort of porter or stout, both of which were pretty good, but not enough so to become a regular and deal with driving down there and parking.

I have been pretty skeptical about the ongoing work on South Main which sounded to me like it was designed to make the street even less convenient to drive and park on, and the news that Hunter Gatherer lost their lease, presumably due to plans for the area does not make me any less so. (And also makes me worry a bit about Cool Beans which is in a similar situation).

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. BO)

As I go to add this to the Alphabetical Closings, I notice I did a post on HG before, when it shut down for the Pandemic. I think this final closing is newsworthy enough that I'm not going to merge it into that earlier post.

This restaurant closed as simply 1801 Grille in late 2022, and then reopened in early 2023 under the new branding of Angell Brothers 1801 Grille (which meant they didn't have to take the sign down for one thing!), closing again as of late last month. I believe USC has ownership of the building, and is involved in the operations as well, which doesn't currently look like a good thing.

Some, unspecified, new concept is in the offing, and The State has the story.

As I mentioned the first time, I believe, it's a nice looking space, with an attractive canopied patio. I would expect it to do a decent business with all the students about though it does seem to have been a bit on the high end, with $14.50 lunch chicken tenders...

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

Well, by the time I get around to noting a closing, it's open again.

The previous incarnation of 1801 Grille was run by Burke Hospitality Group in conjunction with USC and closed in December of 2022. The new incarnation apparently opened yesterday and is called Angell Bros. 1801 Grille and is run, obviously enough I suppose by the Angell brothers who have a number of J. Peters and other restaurants in the area. Here is a State story on the new operation, and here is one on the December closing. The new restaurant's site is here.

When I went by last weekend, it wasn't apparent to me that the opening date was this close, but things generally appeared in order, and the patio is quite nice.

(Belated hat tip to commenter Midnight Rambler)

I was only vaguely aware of The Cliff Apartments when I was at USC, though apparently they had been open for several years at that point. They, along with the Bates-es were just on a side of campus I never had any reason to go to. Now USC has razed the building as part of a plan for a new "Campus Village".

The State has the story here and here. Apparently students were forced out of these dorms in the middle of the year to save construction costs by not holding off on the work. In the event, they seem to be several months behind schedule tearing this place down, and I expect the pandemic played into it. Bates & Bates West are also on the block for the next phase of the project.

I don't know. To me it seems like the campus area has been vastly overbuilt in the last several years. I just don't see enrolement continuing to grow as it has, especially with the total game-changer of remote classes during this last year. We'll see.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I have probably been to this location more often as Swensen's than Hunter-Gatherer, but every time I did go there it was fine.

This space is yet another COVID-19 casualty, with the owners shutting down temporarily to focus on their Rosewood location (of which, frankly, I was unaware).

Here is the story from the Free Times.

(Hat tip to commenter JohnR)

UPDATE 15 November 2021 -- As mentioned in the comments this place is again open:

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.

I'm not sure how much USC still uses "textbooks" in the old sense. I haven't discussed it with anyone now in college, but my impression is that a lot of the books now are in ebook form. Since it sounds like the South Carolina Book Store is really getting out of the textbook market, that may be what happened.

At any rate, when I was in college this place was a sure visit every semester. In those, pre-internet, days this store and the USC owned textbook concession in the Russell House had a duopoly lock on the student book market. I usually tried to get all my bokos on campus, but invaribly there were one or two that were sold out and had to be tracked down here. They would also buy back textbooks, and from time to time growing up, my father would take me here with boxes of books that he had been sent in the hopes he would choose them for his classes, and would sell them, giving the proceeds to my sister and me. (I think he felt it wouldn't be quite right to take the money himself).

Aside from the texts, this place also had a heady mix of pencils, pens, notebooks, art supplies and drafting paper. There was a certain very specific smell when you walked in from all the paper and pencils. If I recall correctly, I had to get all my drafting supplies for my all-time least favorite class: Introduction To Engineering Drafting (or some similar name). I had a compass, gum erasers, drafting pencils, drafting paper and straight-edge. All of that, and after trying all day, I still could not draw a bolt in 3D perspective.

Despite driving past this store many times since college, I don't think I have been in since the 1980s, and I now it's too late to see if it still smelled the same..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I did not know Hummus Mediterranean Bistro existed until commenter Sidney mentioned that it was gone.

About all I know is that it was the follow-on operation in this spot to Uncle Maddio's Pizza and was run by the Al Amir folks. (Who rpeviously had a restaurant just up the street in University Corner at 629 Main Street.

This place got pretty good reviews, the last of which seem to be around March of 2019, so that's what I'm using for a closing date.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

As The Daily Gamecock reports, Yoghut at the corner of Main & Blossom streets is now The Corner Blend with a new menu, including Acai Bowls (something I had never heard of) and Bubble Tea. The place remains under the same management, but the new name reflects the broader focus.

UPDATE 28 June 2019 -- Forgot to put some pictures with the Yoghut branding up. Here they are:

I'm not really a Domino's fan, but it's acceptable pizza, and when you're in college, that's probably the best you can hope for. This particular location is on the sharply sloped section of Devine that leads down from Main to Assembly, requiring that the lot be terraced. You can see a shot of it in operation, with the Domino's signage at the LoopNet listing.

They moved from this building to the old Sandy's location, after completely redoing the looks of that property. I'm a little curious about all this as Sandy's had apparently sold their store to something called The USC Development Foundation, which did not lead me to expect another retail food operation there.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 25 January 2022 -- Now The Smokeshop Guys: