Mind you I drove 20 minutes to get there as I did last Saturday on my day off. Last time I went the roast beef was rare and so chewy I was going to write this review then. My usual favorite other than that is the Roast Beef. I use to go every Wednesday for the Corned Beef & Cabbage. are usually smart as to how they spend there money. My mom died when I was 12, my dad taught me to eat where older people go because the food hasn’t killed them and they. I have eaten at this restaurant easily 100 times over the years and now it needs to change or close. Breakfast Restaurants in French Quarter.American Restaurants for Families in Downtown.Restaurants with Outdoor Seating in Charleston.Restaurants for Special Occasions in Charleston.Restaurants for Group Dining in Charleston.Food Delivery Restaurants in Charleston.Best Pulled Pork Sandwich in Charleston.Late Night Sushi Restaurants in Charleston.Japanese Restaurants for Families in Charleston.European Restaurants for Families in Charleston.Hotels near (CHS) Charleston Intl Airport.Hotels near Battery & White Point Gardens.Hotels near Fort Sumter National Monument.Hotels near Magnolia Plantation & Gardens.InterContinental (IHG) Hotels in Charleston.“Immediately, I went into mourning,” said Patterson, known for his colorful commentary on political issues. Kay Patterson of Columbia was among those having lunch at S&S Thursday when he heard the restaurant was closing. S&S also operates stores in Atlanta, Macon, North Augusta and Knoxville, Tenn. He said full-time employees have been offered an opportunity to go to work in one of the company’s other locations, and some have decided to take positions in Greenville, Charleston and Augusta. S&S has about 40 full-time employees, Smith said, and other part-time workers. S&S opened the Richland Mall location, at Forest Drive and Beltline Boulevard, in 1988. Ten years later, the cafeteria moved to a Gervais Street location, where it operated until 1998, closing, the company said, because of a nonrenewable lease. S&S Cafeteria opened its first location in Columbia on Lady Street in 1949. “Our current work with new anchor tenants continues uninterrupted as we work toward redevelopment of Richland Mall as a lifestyle shopping center,” they said in a statement. Walkup said he and Taylor, who have hired well-known local developer Alan Kahn to help them recruit new businesses to the mall, are sorry to see the cafeteria close but still are committed to revitalizing the center and returning it to its glory days for Midlands shoppers.
The mall - recently known as Midtown at Forest Acres - has undergone a rocky financial road and several name changes, moving from a full and thriving shopping mall in the heart of one of the richest shopping districts in the Midlands to bankruptcy.Ĭentury Capital Group, headed by two Columbia businessmen, Walkup and Don Taylor, purchased the mall in February 2010 for $4.4 million from a group of Florida investors who had purchased the property out of foreclosure a year earlier and put it on the market for $28.5 million.
“This closing will have an impact and it’s going to be missed by a lot of people.” “I hope the mall will be able to stay open,” said June Stevenson, a mall walker who also said she eats regularly at the restaurant. Good food may not be the only issue at stake with S&S’ closing, however. Braised beef was the special Thursday and ranch chicken casserole is featured today. Typically they peruse the colorful handwritten daily menu posted by the door, then rush on past it to the cafeteria’s highly-touted hot buffet.
Though there’s a sign on the front door of the restaurant, many customers did not stop to read it Thursday. He said that in the past six years, S&S saw only one year of down sales and that was in 2009, at the height of the Great Recession. He said all of the mall’s tenants, including the restaurant, saw increased sales in 2010 from the previous year. One of the mall’s new owners, Bill Walkup, said Smith & Sons told him the S&S Cafeteria at the mall has a customer base of 5,500 per week but needed an additional 1,000 customers per week to stay open. “We’re very saddened by the situation,” Smith said by phone. Smith IV, a vice president and co-owner of Smith & Sons, said the decision to close was because of a leasing situation and a lack of customers. “My husband and I eat here every Sunday after church we eat here on Tuesdays when they have their senior citizens’ discount - the food is wonderful and this is very convenient.” “We eat here three times a week,” Columbia resident Cathy Hiott said of her family. She is not alone in her sentiment toward the restaurant.