Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The Delhi Palace has been my favorite Indian restaurant in town for several years now. I'm no expert on Indian food, but I always order from the vegetarian items on the menu, and have found everything tastes very good to me. I noticed a while ago that the old Bojangles on Saint Andrews Road had been tagged as a Delhi Palace, but I wasn't sure if it was a second store or if the original place was moving. (The new place worries me a little bit as the signage indicates Chinese as well as Indian food, but we'll see.)

In the event, it was a bit of both I think, as they opened the new location a little before closing the old one, but the transition is complete now, and the Briargate location is closed. The last few times there, even before they handed me a card with the new info, I had started to figure they must be closing this one because they had obvious AC issues that weren't being addressed. Once is just bad luck, twice you know they aren't going to pay to fix it.

The situation with the Economy Inn at I-20 and Briargate Circle (frontage on Broad River Road) which houses this restaurant is rather interesting and unusual. The hotel has actually withdrawn from their original lobby / conference building, and is now being run out of a new lobby in a repurposed space amongst the guest rooms. I attended an "Album Show" in the conference area probably ten or so years ago, and it was still reasonably kept up (though the show had more high-priced vinyl and fewer "import" CDs that I hoped for). In recent years though it has really gone down as you could tell by traversing the area from the restaurant to the restrooms. I think that at one time, a church was meeting in the old lobby, but in recent months it has still had ponsettias on the tables as if it hadn't been touched since last Christmas. With the closing of the Delhi Palace I don't think there will be anyone using the front building, and it would not surprise me to see it razed (though the Economy Inn doesn't strike me as prosperous enough to undertake any major projects).

I wrote a few days ago about the Sunset Boulevard location of Maurice's Gourmet Barbeque closing. This location, on Garners Ferry Road / Sumter Highway just past I-77 also closed about the same time. In the second picture you can see that it sits next to the former Fantasy Lingerie, which itself closed recently.

I've never been in this, or indeed any, Maurice's location, but what strikes me looking in through the window of this building is how little it looks like a former restaurant inside. It could almost be a generic office building just judging by what's left. The flowers are a nice touch though.

Hat tip to commenter Terry for the heads-up.

UPDATE 22 September 2020: Updating tags and adding map icon.

I'm pretty sure this building, on the North side of Knox Abbott Drive just past Silver City was once a Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. I think various folks have tagged it as such in the comments, and it has that odd "Why not cover our store with a facade of fake rocks?" 1970s look of the other two older Popeyes locations in Columbia that I know of: This one on Farrow Road and this much restauranted building on Decker Boulevard (which has actually just had the rock facade ripped off in the last month or so).

Currently the building hosts the Vacuum Center vacuum cleaner store, but I'm unsure if this was the immediate follow on to Popeyes or if there were one or more other tenants intervening. I have the vague feeling that Vacuum Center may once have been in Parkland Plaza and that I may have bought a reconditioned Electrolux from them, but that may have been another store entirely. Popeyes in the meantime is still around in some form and has Columbia Stores on Augusta Road and Garners Ferry Road. (And, yes, they spell it without an apostrophe, which really grates on me..)

UPDATE 26 January 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Last time I went to Five Guys on Senate Street, I noticed that the adjacent storefront (in-between Five Guys and Paul's Philadelphia Eatery) was now vacant. It had been home to a hair salon for some time, though it never really caught my notice because I've never been tempted to walk into a hair salon. I guess if I had thought about it, it was only to note that the place was sort of the odd-guy-out in a building full of bars and restaurants. I'm guessing that that didn't help it any, nor did the fact that the parking lot there fills up sometimes.

What struck me about this closing was the unusually explicit real-estate listing pasted to the door, giving a full floor plan, all the building financial information and a complete profile of the neighboorhood. Certainly more than you usually see.

UPDATE 27 May 2010 -- It's now Robert Jeffrey Salon:

Today's bonus post comes from commenter Dennis, as do the photos:

After driving past a million times and promising myself to take some pictures before USC bulldozes it, I finally stopped and got some photos of the old Woman's Club building at 1703 Blossom St., next to their tennis center.

As you can see it is slowly moldering away. It has achieved a wonderful haunted house feel, and I'm sure it has a thousand stories and a few ghosts. I don't think it's used for anything currently. For years it was a little rundown but still rented a lot for fraternity and sorority parties. I've been to several wedding receptions and parties there.

It's basically one big room with a kitchen on the end, and some tiny side rooms. I peeked in one years ago and there was a wonderful, poster-sized b&w photo in an old frame showing the club in its heyday, with dozens of stylish ladies wearing their best hats and pearls at long banquet tables, taken in the 1940s I'd guess. I tried hard to track down who to ask about getting my hands on it but never could figure out who to talk to.

The Woman's Club of Columbia is still around and very active. They now meet here:

http://www.gfwc-sc.org/headquarters.htm

Columbia City Council records show that they were given permission and "encouragement" to put up a plaque explaining the history of the old Blossom St. place. It hasn't happened yet. The building has been nominated to go on the federal List of National Historic Places, but I don't think that has happened yet either. It's currently owned by USC and valued at $700,00 but I'm sure the acre and a half lot is worth a lot more than that. And the huge oak trees are priceless.

UPDATE 8 November 2009: Added '1940' to post title.

I have to admit I wasn't really aware of Frawley's Audio until it was gone. In fact, I only noticed that when I saw the going-out-of-buisness signs at Fontenay Fine Rugs & Antiques next door, walked over to take a look and saw the empty storefront.

The sign on the door says they were there for over 35 years, which is a good run for an independent store in these big-box times.

I think I vaguely remember the Varsity Restaurant being open, but never ate there. It was apparently a fixture in Columbia for decades. The old building is in sad disrepair, and seems to have been remodelled several times, judging by this postcard shot at flikr.

The 1970 Yellow Pages ad pitches the pizza, so I guess they were trying to stay current in a changing world -- that certainly wouldn't have been on the menu in 1935. There is currently a Varsity D Jasz restaurnt nearby the old Varsity (at 1212 Sunset Drive, almost at the corner of North Main and Sunset), but I have no idea if its related to the old one at all. It appears to be a small lunch-counter type operation.

UPDATE 6 Feb 2013 -- It looks as though somebody started renovations on the old Varsity building, but didn't get too far before the city stopped them:

UPDATE 13 July 2014 -- final days (pix from 10 November 2013):

UPDATE 15 July 2014 Buh-bye! (pix from 5 April 2014):

They can't hear you now..

This storefront, on Dutch Square Boulevard across from the mall, started out life as a Circuit City, or at least that was the first I noticed it. It may have been marqueed as Dixie Hi-Fi in the 1970s, before the chain adopted the Circuit City name, but I can't say for sure. This store is more or less equivalent to the first Circuit City location on Two Notch, now a bedroom store, and like that store eventually moved twice, first to Bush River Road and then to Harbison Boulevard.

I lost track of the building after Circuit City departed, but I'm pretty sure there were tenants after it and before Alltel Wireless. I'm not sure when Alltel moved in, but when Verizon bought Alltel in a deal sealed 9 Januray 2009, the writing was on the wall for this store, and as you can see from the window placard, all Alltel customers are being directed to Verizon on Columbiana Drive.

We'll see how it all settles out. In the meantime, I'm keeping my rotary dial phones and landline..

UPDATE 6 November 2009: Added "Bellsouth Mobility" to the post title based on the comments.

The last time I was in Doc's Gumbo Grille would have been 11 May 2007. In fact, that was only the second time I had been there, the first being for another Qs show. I can't say I was as enthusiastic about the food as some folks. It may have just been that I was ordering the "we have to have this or some guy in a group will always veto us" menu items instead of the gumbo, but I thought the food was average. That said, I wasn't there for the food, and the place was a pretty good venue. In particular, the acoustics were much improved over the last place I had seen the Qs, the New Brookland Tavern, and the staff was friendly. It's definitely a shame to see another local music venue close. (Not that I see shows these days, or really regularly any days..)

Eva has the story of the closing in The Free Times, and it appears the biggest blow to the place was the SCE&G lunch crowd's recent departure from downtown. I hope that doesn't have any other knock-on effects in the Vista.

As usual with anything on the west side of a street, these pictures are not great as I never get out early enough to have the sun behind me. Unfortunately, I also missed the neon sign being lit. The last time I saw it on, I was driving somewhere and couldn't stop to take the picture.

UPDATE 3 November 2009: Added "Kinch's" to the post title based on the comments.

UPDATE 4 November 2009: Added "Shealy's Sandwiches" based on Badger's comment and looking in the 1970 Yellow Pages

UPDATE 9 April 2010: For whatever reason, someone turned on the sign the night of the 6th, so I got some pictures of it lit up and have added them at the front of the pictures.

UPDATE 14 April 2010 -- Here's the new Doc's location at 3830 Rosewood Drive:

UPDATE 15 May 2011 -- The follow-on operation on Assembly, is now open (and has been since at least mid 2010):

Also, the Doc's on Rosewood went under after the move.

I first wrote about this building when it was a former Quincy's. Now it is a former Maurice's. It seems the current recession has made a hash of the barbecue business, as this is the second Maurice's to close recently.

To me, the location seems a little awkward to get into and out of. I can't remember if that were the case when it was a Quincy's or if it is an artifact of all the road work that's been done on the I-26 / US-378 interchange over the last couple of years. However, the selling realtor is apparently quite upbeat about the plot as the the current asking price is $1,350,000.

UPDATE 8 November 2009: Forgot to hat tip commenter B.C.

UPDATE 22 September 2020 -- This place has been razed. Also, updating post tags and adding a map icon.