Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

The Killian Road area I Heart Mac & Cheese closed in November 2023, and I had visited it a few times, and thought it was OK if pricey & slow. This location, at the corner of Platt Springs & Emanuel Church roads, I had not visited. However my sister & niece did go a few times and liked it pretty well.

Judging by Google reviews, and a report from my sister, the hours had become rather erratic recently, which is a subcase of Sign #1.

The State noted the closing here, and the opening here. WLTX also noted the opening.

The media and street address posit this spot as West Columlbia, but this far out, I would have thought Springdale, South Congaree or just Lexington County.

Il Bucato replaced Ed Robinson Laundry & Dry Cleaning in late 2020 after the worst of the pandemic, but when running a take-out restaurant still made sense. Looking at the Google reviews, it appears to have had a pretty good run up until the past few months, when a lot of reviews mentioned staffing issues. There was also one gentleman called out by name as exemplary, and then a few reviews later there is one (purportedly) from him, saying that he was moving on.

I can't find anything official online about the closing, but here is an article from ColaDaily about the opening.

(Hat tip to commenter Nobody)

Restaurant models come in waves, for instance crab-themed seafood places, and there has been a wave of coffee drive-throughs lately, to include 7Brew, Clutch, Hard Bean, The Human Bean & Canal Coffee. Scooter's was part of that wave and opened here on Garners Ferry Road in 2023, part of a number of local openings as reported by The State.

The closing note on the drive-through doesn't really give any details, but a non-official Reddit posting suggests that only stores owned by WalReedBev Co are affected, and that does match the names given by The State.

(Hat tip to commenter Trevin)

I don't know much about Clean Juice. Judging from the Google reviews, it seems like they did smoothies & avocado toast, but I see the one on Forest Drive also has sandwiches and acai bowls. They were located just a few doors down from Wayback Burgers.

The closing note is a bit confusing, opening with We have sold!, but apparently that does not mean they have sold the operation as an ongoing concern.

(Hat tip to commenter JamesR)

I don't have much to say about this closing, just that the onwership of this Blaze was the same as the one at Sandhill, and it closed on the same date with the same note.

The Corner Blend at the corner of Main & Blossom Streets has been a number of things since the building went up. Most recently, I believe, it was Yoghut, and my understanding at the time was that The Corner Blend is essentially a reflagging of that operation to signal a new focus on Boba and Acai bowls.

The Post & Courier reports that the space has been taken by the owners of the Rosewood Market who want to make it a mini-outpost of that brand. It sounds as though there is still a good bit of work to do, but the projected timeframe is "this fall".

(Hat tip to commenter Cats)

This has already been discussed extensively in Have Your Say but B Mac's Buffet which opened on 8 August 2025, in the old Copper River Grill location, unexpectedly closed on 26 August, 18 days later.

Here is a State story on the news that the place would be moving in. In retrospect, there are a number of red flags on display.

The State covers the actual opening here here.

You can read about the closing at WLTX.

(Hat tip to a number of commenters, but I believe commenter Tom made the first definitive 'This place is closed' mention.)

Here's another place I never ate -- I wasn't really aware of it, and anyway would worry about parking. I don't have an exact date for the closing, but the follow-on, Surfin' Sumo, "Hawaiian fusion flavors with a Japanese twist", opened on 28 August 2025, so presumably at least a couple of weeks before that, to allow for the changeover.

I don't see any stories about Sandwich Depot (the Google reviews are middling), but here are stories about the new operation from City government, the Post & Courier & The State.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

Sometimes it seems as though restaurants go through phases, and for a while the "build-your-own-pizza" phase was hot. I never went to Blaze, but I have been to Mod, and I understand that it's a similar experience: You go through a line like you are building a buritto except it's a pizza, and after you have all your toppings they quick-fire it and there you go.

It's a concept that has been going through some tough times as Mod went through bankruptcy recently and closed locations, 1000 Degress never got here, and now all the Midlands Blaze locations have shut down.

Blaze is not the first restaurant to close in this storefront, back in 2013, it was Al Amir with the place sitting vacant, I believe, until Blaze moved in in 2016.

Here is the story in The State & The Free Times.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

This place is now called Veneziano's. Looking at the Google reviews, it's hard to say exactly when this happened, but apparently the ownership changed about a year ago, and the name probably changed around October of 2024. I had eaten several times at Papa Gio's, and it was not my favorite place. I found that consistently the garlic knots had very little or no garlic on them, and since they did not have 10 inch pizza, I would order a calzone, which would generally have cold ricotta in the filling.

I decided to try Veneziano's, and found the interior much the same with the exception of some tables being removed in the area directly behind the hostess stand. Service was good and friendly, but I still found that the garlic knots had no garlic, and the calzone was filled with chilled ricotta...