{"id":17682,"date":"2020-08-31T23:03:24","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T03:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=17682"},"modified":"2021-09-13T23:16:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T03:16:59","slug":"fatz-cafe-5590-forest-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?p=17682","title":{"rendered":"Fatz Cafe, 5590 Forest Drive:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660316.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660316_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1660316_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1660316_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660317.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660317_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1660317_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1660317_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660318.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660318_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1660318_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1660318_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660319.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660319_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1660319_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1660319_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660320.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660320_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1660320_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1660320_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660321.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660321_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1660321_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1660321_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660323.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/20\/08\/p1660323_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1660323_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1660323_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Judging by reviews, this <i>Fatz<\/i> may have been closed on a temporary basis since the start of the <a href=\"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/?tag=covid-19\">COVID-19<\/a> crisis, but now they have made it permanent.<\/p>\n<p>To the best of my memory, this location is the only <i>Fatz<\/i> at which I have eaten.  It would have been while I was living out of town, in the late 1980s, or early 1990s I think, and I was not impressed.  I remember distinctly thinking something like <i>Secret Sauce?:  Mayo!<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Now, I may have come on the wrong night, or ordered the wrong thing, because the <i>Yelp<\/i> reviews of the three <i>Fatz<\/i> locations I have looked at (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.yelp.com\/biz\/fatz-southern-kitchen-columbia\">this one<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yelp.com\/biz\/fatz-southern-kitchen-irmo\">the one on Broad River Road<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yelp.com\/biz\/fatz-southern-kitchen-conway\">the one in Conway<\/a>) show plenty of people who used to love the chain.  They also show a recent precipitous decline in perceived food quality, service levels and physical plant maintainence.  I just guessing here, but there seems to be a viscious circle going on with declining income leading to a decline in the things that bring in income.  (By the way, what's up with both <i>Yelp<\/i> and <i>Google<\/i> showing reviews in other than newest first order?  The recent ones are kind of the most important!)<\/p>\n<p>It will be interesting to see what happens to this location, because while it is at an Interstate exit, it really isn't that easy to get to.<\/p>\n<p>(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)<\/p>\n<p><b>UPDATE 25 May 2021<\/b> -- This spot is now setting up to be another crab restaurant, <i>The Juicy Crab<\/i>:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700629.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700629_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1700629_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1700629_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700630.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700630_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1700630_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1700630_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700631.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700631_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1700631_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1700631_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700632.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700632_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1700632_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1700632_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700633.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/05\/p1700633_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1700633_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1700633_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>UPDATE 13 September 2021<\/b> -- <i>The Juicy Crab<\/i> is now open in this spot:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/09\/p1730685.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/09\/p1730685_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1730685_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1730685_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/09\/p1730686.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/09\/p1730686_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1730686_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1730686_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"..\/pix\/21\/09\/p1730687.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/pix\/21\/09\/p1730687_tn.jpg\" title=\"p1730687_tn.jpg\" alt=\"p1730687_tn.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/place\/5590+Forest+Dr,+Columbia,+SC+29206\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/pix\/misc\/world_map_icon.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judging by reviews, this Fatz may have been closed on a temporary basis since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, but now they have made it permanent. To the best of my memory, this location is the only Fatz at which I have eaten. It would have been while I was living out of town, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1707],"tags":[3082,3005,1743,3083,269,96,3,886],"class_list":["post-17682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-closing","tag-5590-forest-drive","tag-covid-19","tag-east-forest-plaza","tag-fatz-cafe","tag-forest-acres","tag-forest-drive","tag-restaurants","tag-southern"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/columbiaclosings.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}