Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I never ate at Saffron, but their mix of cuisines (Indian, Chinese & Mexican) intrigued me. I figure there was a family story in there somewhere. Yelp reviews indicate that the place changed hands last year, and you can see on the marquee sign, that the Mexican aspect has been elided.

Now the place has closed, and the follow-on will be a (fully) Mexican restaurant: La Cienega.

I noticed when I was in the Columbia Mall food court recently that China Max was closed. It's been quite a while since I was at the mall last, so I'm just tagging the date as 2018 for lack of anything more precise. I presume this China Max was connected with the China Max at Richland Mall, but I don't know for sure.

What I find especially interesting is the sign proclaiming that the place will soon be a King's Pizza. This pizza chain seems to be making a big splash all of a sudden, with a store on Forest Drive in the former Charlie's Wings, one opening here, and one opening in the old Chickadee's Diner on Marshall Street.

East Point Academy is a Chinese language (Mandarin) immersion charter school that set up shop here in what I still think of as the Sandy's plaza in 2012.

This location is now their K4/K5 campus, with their elementary campus being on Leaphart road. Apparently they are doing quite well, and are opening a new campus on Chris Road this fall (2018) which will replace this one. You can see the WLTX story on the new campus here.

Jade Palace was the follow-on operation in this building to China Dragon, which was a follow-on (though probably not a direct one) to Popeye's Chicken who built the building in the rocky-facade style they used at the time.

Commenter Thomas noted that Jade Place had opened in February of 2010, so they had about an eight year run, which is not bad.

The building was not vacant for long at all (it is now a wing joint), which makes me wonder if perhaps the ownership is still the same.

(Hat tip to commenter Toby)

UPDATE 18 November 2019 -- Correct address from 3113 Farrow to 3115 Farrow. Add map icon.

This little Chinese & Chicken outpost on North Main has been closed at least since March.

Wing Basket is obviously not the first tenant in this building, but the shape of it doesn't suggest anything concrete as to the original incarnation to me.

I'm not sure when this little takeout storefront co-located with the garage on Fairlane closed, but it's in the February 2015-2016 phonebook, and I think I would have noticed it previously if it had been closed longer than a few months, so I'm tagging it as winter 2015. Reviews are rather mixed, but they'd been there for a good while, so they must have been doing something right.

UPDATE 25 May 2016 -- Now Saffron, an Indian/Chinese/Mexican takeout storefront:

If you look closely at the three pictures above (especially the last one), you can see China Max in operation at the (second) Richland Mall food court.

Commenter MrBO sends in the next two pictures, showing that China Max has now moved shop from the food court to Harden Street. I believe this leaves the food court completely empty, possibly leading some of the call center folks to actually try the pizza at the Barnes & Nobel cafe.

This is another in a long series of blows to the mall, which would be bad enough, but management adds to the problem by adopting an air of defeat, as in, for instance, turning off the elevator fountains and pool, retiring the Christmas singing bears and more recently, closing off the upper level entrance and walk-through for Belk's:

(Hat tip to commenter MrBO)

15 July 2014 -- added an additional picture, though it doesn't really add much value.

Commenter Homer notes that this small Chinese restaurant in High Pointe Centre on Lake Murray Boulevard has closed.

He sends in his pictures here and notes elsewhere that the place was a true family operation with a daughter often taking orders and translating them for mom and pop.

I note that at this juncture, the plaza sign and spelling (note the 'e' on Pointe and the British Centre) seem rather more grandiose than the current tenant list warrants.

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

I have got to say that their marquee mascot looks the least like a Chinese chef of any illustration I've seen. (Not that there's anything wrong with a European in a floppy hat dilligently applying himself and learning Chinese cooking..)

UPDATE 6 October 2021: Adding "North" to "Woodrow Street" in the title and tags. Adding map icon.

I had actually taken some pictures of this place last September, when I first got a report that it was closed. That proved to be short lived, and by the time I got over there, it was open again as seen in the first three pictures.

This month it re-closed, this time apparently for good as there is a real-estate sign in the window, and the menus have been taken down (although the nice neon sign is still there..)

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 17 January 2014 -- Now it's Olive Grill: