Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I tend to hit his place, a follow-on to Pie-Tanza & Embers, around once a year as I forget about it in-between times, but I don't think I have been since the pandemic started.

Anyway, according to their signage and ColaDaily, they are stopping dinner service for the nonce, due to the staffing issues afflicting the whole restaurant sector.

Here's another CVS closing, this time in a down-at-the-heels plaza (which used to house Walmart & then Netbank),at the corner of Two Notch & Polo Roads.

Commenter Thomas says this one started as a Revco, and that rings a faint bell.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

UPDATE 12 July 2022 -- Here are some post-closing pictures:

I had never noticed this medical office slightly up the hill from The former Stein Mart, but driving by the other day saw a real estate sign and took a look. According to the door sign they closed about a year ago, and I will say the google reviews are interesting.

I'm not sure how my camera got into 1:1 square aspect ratio, but that's why the first pictures look a bit odd.

Well, it's back to Polo Plaza again for this nail spa next to the former Spectrum. It's a bit unusual that they left some of the neon behind, but as nearly as I can tell looking at the two Facebook pages associated with this place, TLC probably moved in 2016, to 9300 Two Notch, which appears to be the strip mall across from the Big Lots shopping center.

I actually did go into this Polo Plaza storefront once, years ago, when I was cancelling my cable. It went fairly smoothly. Since then, Time Warner Cable has been rebranded as Spectrum, and the Spectrum office itself has moved down the road to 10136 Two Notch. According to this article the new store was up an running by early December 2021.

I'm not sure I understand the suite numbering here, which seems to kind of run both ways, but the suite is either 1, or 'O' or both..

As reported by commenter Andrew, the Food Lion in Polo Plaza has upped shop and moved to the old Bi-Lo in Spring Valley Commons.

This move leaves not a lot in Polo Plaza, which Domino's having moved last year.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 2 May 2020: Changed the move date from March 2020 to June 2019 based on the comments.

Domino's at Polo Plaza has moved across the parking lot and around the corner to the freestanding building at 9814 Two Notch Road, which used to house Blockbuster Video and then A Goodnight Sleepstore.

As you can see from the pictures, they are only occupying the north half of the building, and the south half is still for lease.

(Hat tip to commenter LD)

Embers moved into the old Pie-Tanza location in this upscale little strip mall on Polo Road probably some time in 2014. In the event, I ate there once, and decided it was ok, but nothing special enough to make the drive. (I do recall that they had fixed the water pressure issues in the bathroom that had affected Pie-Tanza).

When I was out that way today to use the contract Post Office in the convenience store, I noticed a new nameplate on the building. The new tenant is Upper Crust, also a pizza establishment. Since their sign proclaims that they were founded in 2017 (17 March 2017 according to The State), that's what I will use as the closing date for Embers.

Pie-Tanza was in the little shopping center on Polo Road at the light where Mallet Hill Road starts. The area has certainly changed from my high school days when there was nothing in that particular area except stables and the eponymous polo fields. Now there is a gas station convenience store, contract Post Office, liquor store and 24 hour gym, and the currently empty restaurant slot.

I'm afraid I wasn't as impressed with Pie-Tanza as some of the commenters in Have Your Say. Basically, I had three issues with the place.

First, they had a very nice garlic bread appitizer item, except they never actually had it -- there were three or so times I took the trouble to go out that way rather than one of my usual pizza "go-to" places just on the basis of that, and then would not be able to get it. You would expect that they could white-board a substitute basic garlic bread, but that never happened either.

Second, it was very expensive -- noticably more so than the competition, and I felt the pizza was pretty average, despite the supposed superiority of "wood fired" ovens. I remeber looking at the lunch menu too and thinking that the Italian Sausage sandwich looked good, but I could never be comfortable paying that much for one.

Third, there was no water pressure in the bathroom. It was like trying to wash your hands under a thin stream of drool.

Now, looking at the closing sign, I suspect the first two were due to this being the South Carolina location of a Virgina chain (which I did not not before reading that). The expense was the result of trying to import DC Metro prices into Columbia, and the availability of chain specialties was probably beyond the control of local management.

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I know I took some pictures of this under-awning vacancy at Polo Plaza at least a year ago, possibly longer. In the event, I never could determine what had been there, and so never did a post on it.

I was going to Time Warner Cable in the same plaza the other day and noticed that the two suites were still vacant, so I decided to put it out there and see if anyone remembered what was there last.

The street address is 9810 Two Notch Road, and the two store fronts are designated "9-D" & "10-C" according to the stenciling. I notice however that other references to the plaza use only the suite letters, as in this LoopNet listing

UPDATE 8 July 2012: Commenter Clay identifies this place as a former Gooney Birds and then GB's, so I have changed the post title from "Storefronts" to that. I found that GB's Grill & Bar was listed in the Feb 1997 phonebook, so it was there at least until then. There's a gap in my phonebooks, but it appears that WG's closed in 2007.

UPDATE 9 December 2012: Add Sharee's to the post title based on commenter Natalie's info.