Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I think Old Chicago has a decent pizza, and here in Columbia it has the advantage of being a decent place regularly open late. About the only negative thing I have to say is that they can't settle on a garlic bread appetizer. They have gone through three or four iterations in the last several years. Anyway, this Murrells Inlet location was not open late as consistently as the Vista one, as is typical for Grand Strand restaurants in the off seaosns, but nonetheless I ate there a good number of times over the last several years.

It was a new store, replacing another bar whose name escapes me, and which was completely razed to put up this building, but in the end it didn't last that long. I noticed in December driving by that it did not appear to be open when I would expect it to be, and finally a stop verified that it was gone.

The Sun News had the story here, saying that 30 November was the last night.

The follow-on is now open -- Bohemian Bull Tavern and Beer Garden:

I remember this Krispy Kreme going back to high school days in the late 1970s. Lately it has seemed not to be open as late as the one near the former Myrtle Square Mall or the one in North Myrtle Beach, and I hadn't been in for a while. It was still a bit of a disappointment to see it closed and all papered over last December.

The Sun News says it actually closed in October. The company didn't provide them a reason, but it's not too far from other location I mentioned, so I suspect given traffic and staffing, it probably was just not worth it to them to keep it open.

This building was built as a smallish KFC. After that closed in 2015, Jimmyz Hibachi moved in, closing in 2022. Jerimiah's opened, I believe in the spring of 2024 and did not quite last out the year. I did not get around to trying it, but while I was taking these pictures somebody pulled into the (just) closed drive-through and expressed disappointment as in their opinion, it was quite good.

BTW, Three Dog Night are coming to the Township in April.

Here's a Fatz I missed back during the chain closing as it's in a place I rarely drive by at the first I-26 exit for Clinton. I noticed it a few times while it was empty, but was always past the exit by the time I saw it, and now it has been repurposed as a Mexican restaurant, El Poblano.

The approach is a bit odd in that you basically have to go through a gas/convenience store's parking lot to get back to the restaurant and hotel. I did not try the restaurant, but it has generally good reviews (as always with a few one-star ones thrown in).

This Dairy Queen replaced the old Hardee's and opened during the Pandemic of 2020 when people were desperate to get out of the house somehow, whether they could go inside and eat or not: During the opening weeks, the line of cars would be backed up on US-17 for half a block.

After that, things settled down, but from my observation the place seemed to do a decent business, making me think the closing may have more to do with the chain's ongoing issues than anything with this particular store.

I was a little bemused during my walk-around to see Dennis The Menace surfing on a mural. Dennis was the chain's spokeskid during the 70s, and one radio commercial of Dennis and his pal Joey talking gave me a (probably annoying) catch-phrase to throw into conversations: Yeah, Joey: Like a super-brazier chilli-dog! I had thought Dennis & Dairy Queen had parted ways years ago, but I guess not.

Here is a very brief news note on the closing. As of early 2025 there is no activity with the building.

I didn't know for sure when I made arrangements to spend the weekend in Fernandina that I would hit the Dickens On Centre festival, though I figured there was a pretty good chance of that. In the event, I did, and it was quite nice. They close off Centre Street starting at, I believe, Fourth Street, and also a block of 4th, 3rd, 2nd & 1st on either side of Centre and line the entire thing with craft booths, performance stages and outdoor eateries, the most visible one being the bubble enclosed tables on 2nd Street.

Players in period costumes (well-to-to period costumes to be sure) circulate for photo ops, and there are music and theater events on the stages. There was also a drone show over the harbor, which I was not expecting and was not in a good position to see, but which was nonetheless quite impressive. Centre Street merchants and restaurants stay open during the event as well, and do, I'm sure, quite a good business. Things wrap up Sunday at 3:00, and you can see a good bit of the teardown in the pictures following that.

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My trip to this year's Nights Of A Thousand Candles was one of the coldest in quite a while. Last year the Smores setup seemed like one of those things you do at the Fourth of July because the kids like it, but the chocolate is melting everywhere -- this year that was not a problem, and the heat from the firepits was very welcome! In fact, my fingers were going numb on the camera controls, something which hasn't happened for a good few years now.

I wasn't expecting the traffic to be particularly bad for a Sunday show, but in the event it took an hour to make my way from the start of the lineup on US-17 to the parking lot. There were a few visible changes this year: The Garden Of The Muses is under construction, so there were no lights at a spot which has has some quirky setups over the years, the indoor model train setups have added a Hooterville layout, and the main Christmas tree is lighted again after giving it a few years off to recover.

The event runs weekends through New Years, so if you happen to be in the area, but sure to check it out!

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Here's one I always wanted to visit, but it was very far North from my usual Grand Strand stomping grounds, and the one time I made an actual effort to get there, I found it closed (they apparently were always closed on Monday, and some years Monday & Tuesday). When I heard it was to be sold, I thought I would make one more effort, but as is usual, could never remember to do it when I was on the Strand until it was way too late to drive up there. In fact even the day I took these pictures I was there too late for decent light.

The Sun News has the story on the closing though the details were a bit vague at the time, in particular whether it would close in February of 2024 or July was unknown, and I don't see any follow-up story. What I do see has the ironic detail that the parcel was being sold to a development company who did not care to run a restaurant there, except now the plot is being resold again with nothing apparently having come to fruition, so the restaurant might as well have stayed.

The building looks as though it would welcome a little work, but still seems to be completely tabled & equipped. Even the computer is still up, sort of.

You can see a cached web page here, and Yelp reviews here, and a USA Today 10 Best post here.

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Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce... And everything else now too.

This Burger King is on 8th Street in Fernandina, which is the main road coming onto the island from the mainland. That makes it a high traffic location, and the store was in a decent area (there aren't any really bad spots on 8th), so I'm not sure what happened here.

Well, OK, apparently the place was just bad: The google reviews are sprinkled with one-star reports, including the classic

I recommend taco bell or starve.

and the Yelp reviews are worse. The question is how does that happen? I get that the franchaise system means local ownership, but at some level corporate has to take care of the brand.

Anyway, as I said it's a decent location, so I would expect something else before too long.

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Bennigan's never came to Columbia, but were pretty big elsewhere in the 1980s. I remember that when I was living in Fayetteville, it was a standard place to unwind when the out-of-town crew was visiting to help us set up for field exercises. After that the chain kind of lost its way, and ended up going bankrupt in 2008 which drastically reduced the number of locations.

Nonetheless, things survive & thrive in Florida when they don't elsewhere, and this Melbourne location, on US-192 just East of I-95 opened on 28 January 2016. I always meant to drop in and see if it was as I remembered, but always had some place I would rather eat with my limited time in the area. However this guy did and was a bit underwhelmed.

At any rate the place gave up the ghost in February of 2023, and is now a Mexican eatery, Agave D'Oro. I'm pretty sure I have a picture of it in operation somewhere, and if I find it I'll add it up top.