Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

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.

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.

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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Columbia's only TGI Fridays closed back in 2013, with the building to bite the dust sometime this year probably, but the Grand Strand continued to have several locations.

I ate at this one back in January of 2024, and it was fine: A decent burger & fries an hour after most other places were closed. I did notice that it wasn't actually open as late as I expected from a Fridays, and that the customers were pretty sparse, but in general it seemed in good order, and I was surprised to see the signage down on my last visit.

This continues the trend of Inlet Square losing national chain restaurants, some thing that has included Hooters, Applebee's & J. Peters & Spinnaker's. In the case of all of those except the last, local operations have moved in after the chains shut, so we will have to see what happens here. I do know that some sort of redevelopment for Inlet Square is supposedly in the cards (of course that has been the case before with nothing materializing..)

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I always wanted to play this old-school mini-golf course in Surfside, across from the old Wild Water & Wheels, but in the event we usually ended up at one closer to Pawleys. Still, you really haven't had the beach golf experience unless you've played a course with an octopus!

The course was opened in 1989, making it a 34 year run. However, it sounds like the current plan is (or at least was) to build two new courses in the space, so we'll have to see what happens. As of December of 2023, the place had been razed down to the ground.

Here is a story about it from WPDE, and also one from WBTW

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Sol was the follow-on in this space (which was built as a Sam's Corner hotdog place) to the idiosyncratically named Joe Loves Lobster Rolls.

It was a rather upscale Mexican place, the kind where they don't have the items you expect, and you don't get free chips & salsa. In the event, I only ate there once, with my college roommate & his wife after we had taken in an evening at Nights Of A Thousand Candles. The only thing I saw on the menu that appealed to me was the Chile Rellenos, which were fine, but on the whole for that type of concept, I prefer Luna in Murrells Inlet.

One thing I did notice driving by in the years after that, was that the hours of the place were rather unusual, and they tended to take the winter completely off. The Sun News has the story on the closing. The given reason is that the rent in this spot is too high, which seems odd as it is a building which has had trouble holding restaurants, and it is a bit off the beaten path. At any rate, the owner hopes to re-open somewhere on the Grand Strand.

To my memory, I only ate at Scatori's once, probably about five years ago, and it was fine, though not any better than my normal Strand pizza venues. I did think whenever I heard of it that the name was a bit unfortunate.

The Sun News says that the place had been open 15 years, which would have made it an early storefront in this shopping center, which I still think of as 'new' itself. The chef, who featured on TV's Cutthroat Kitchen has gone on to West Virgina to run a food truck which seems like an odd progression, but I guess that's what he wanted to do.

Both news articles say that Scatori's was sold in January (though it did not close then), but it appears that as of yet, the new owners have not done anything to the interior setup or furnishings.

(Hat tip to commenter Dan R)