Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Lita's Treats moved to this location from the Dutch Square food court in 2021. On 8 May a car drove into their storefront, closing them down temporarily. Luckily neither anyone in the store nor the dirver was hurt, which definitely was not a given. According to Lita's Facebook page, the damage is more extensive than they originally thought, so it's not clear when they will reopen, though they plan to. In the meantime, they have a store on Killian Road.

WIS has the story.

(Hat tip to commenter Dennis)

Hard Bean was the follow-up in this building to Maurice's Piggy Park which closed in November of 2023.

Hard Bean was here in the summer of 2024 until April of this year when they announced they were moving to Lexington. Apparently the new address will be 129 Cromer Road, which appears to be on the other side of Sunset from the Chick-Fil-A (though back a bit further).

I don't know the reasons for the move of course, but I've always thought this storefront and the next door one are hard to get in and out of, plus of course, there is a Dunkin with coffee right there as well.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Well, I am happy to report that the best sandwiches on the Strand are available again. After a fire closed Dagwood's in Surfside back in January, the place underwent a several month rehabilitation, opening again last week as reported on their Facebook.

Here is a WMBF story on the fire. According to the chain's site, this building has been a Dagwood's since 2006. I am pretty sure I recall it being a Shoney's before that, and where we ate Thanksgiving dinner one odd-off year when all our relatives were away.

I look forward to a BLT+ the next time I am on the Strand!

Tee'd Up was the follow-on operation in this Lake Murray adjacent building to Shooey Malone's. Judging by the farewell note on the place's Facebook, the owner had another avenue open up, and a chance to sell the property as well.

Although the note is a bit vague, something else if obviously coming, and work has already started on the building for whatever it is.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

We've mentioned this closing several times in Have Your Say, but Blythewood based Chubby's Burgers has closd their Jackson Square location. This storefront is a mention on Good Luck With That, having hosted a number of different restaurants in the relatively short time the plaza has existed.

I always expected I would check out Chubby's sooner or later, but if it's a matter of driving out to Blythewood, that may not now happen.

The Free Times has the story.

Well. This was a long time coming, but pretty much inevitable. This Panera Bread location had been epically mismanaged for a number of years, as a glance at the Google reviews will show. I used to come here pretty frequently as it is fairly close to my house and they had a patio that was pleasant in temperate weather. However over the years things just got worse and worse with tables never being wiped down, the dish return stations going unbussed, the bathrooms unscrubbed and the counter almost completely unmanned. If you did manage to place an order, something inevitably would be wrong with it, and if you ordered coffee, the urn would invariably be cold. Add in being panhandled at first outside and later inside, and it was just not a good experience.

Apparently the space is being prepped for a Metro Diner, a chain with which I am unfamiliar, but which appears to be sort of a down-home breakfast & comfort food place.

In the meantime, I have found the Panera on Killian Road to be pretty well run, if harder to get to.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

I got a little behind the times here, missing two in a row.

The Southern Belly opened a location in this spot around 2018 after Spork closed. They lasted apparently until 2022.

After that, Krab Kingz opened on 21 April 2022, as detailed in this State story. They also folded in somehow the Hook Fish & Chicken operation from River Drive after they closed.

Krab Kingz seems to have folded sometime in 2024, with the last archived web page I can find from October 2023. I believe they were part of a national chain which still exists.

Now the place is Best Wings Of Columbia.

I'll confess that I never picked up on the fact this was an Asian restaurant until I looked at the menu this evening. From the name, I expected burgers, or maybe barbecue.

This building has been a number of different eateries including Moe's Grapevine, Rooftop Pizza Pub & Eric's San Jose.

ALley Street opened here after Eric's around August of 2024, so they didn't make it a full year. I think the building itself is a bit of a challenge. Apart from not knowing what kind of place it was, you might look at it and wonder how you were going to get grandma up the steps and inside. I'm pretty sure there is an accessible back door, but that's not readily apparent from Rosewood.

The building is currently for rent, so we'll have to see if another restaurant is in its future.

The State has the story, such as it is, here

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

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:

This storefront at 10008 Two Notch has been a number of different restaurants over the past few years. The Baked Potato Factory took over from Good Greens sometime between March 2022 & March 2023.

It's not quite clear when this place closed. Looking at the Google reviews, they had been having trouble meeting their stated hours for a while, but the last reviews are tagged "three months ago", so I am going with January 2025. While I enjoy a baked potato every now and then, I never got around to trying them out, though the reviews also suggest the potatoes were pretty good and amply sized.