MAIN STREET’S 4 ROLES

Main, on the cusp of

a new life, is city’s
heart, power center
By JEFF WILKINSON C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
jwilkinson@thestate.com ■ A dozen artists’ studios in the Arcade include dropping the Big Chicken.
Mall and a proposal for an arts space in the “There’s a lot going on in downtown
Main Street. Tapps Building.
■ New clubs and restaurants such as
Columbia,” Benjamin said. “We have a
vibrant Vista and a vibrant Five Points and
1. THE STATE’S
It’s the historic heart of the city. It’s the
financial and political center of the state. White Mule, Zoe’s and a Brazilian a great 27,000-student university. FINANCIAL AND
steakhouse. “But we have to go on pushing the im-
It’s the region’s emerging arts district. And
it has more opportunity for new retail, res- ■ And a string of newer festivals and portance of having a vibrant Main Street. If POLITICAL CENTER
taurants and clubs than any other district in events: First Thursdays, Wing Fling and the you are going to have a great city — not a High-rises — three built in the past
the city. Urban Tour. good city but a great city — you have to
seven years — are home to bankers,
And unless you live or work there, you Benjamin even wants a jam-up New have a great urban core. And we have the
Year’s event. No word on whether that will makings of that here on Main Street.” lawyers, politicians, lobbyists and
probably haven’t visited it in years.
Perhaps you should. bureaucrats.
With Mast General Store opening, a new
Nickelodeon art house cinema, new restau-
rants and clubs, an emerging arts scene
and almost monthly festivals, markets,
tours and crawls, Main Street is becoming
livelier than it has been since the depart-
ment stores fled for the suburbs some three
decades ago.
“We’ve got to pull people back to Main
Street,” said Mayor Steve Benjamin, who is
making the kind of push to turn the street
into a destination as his predecessor Bob
Coble did for the nearby Vista.
City leaders have spent more than a
decade and millions of dollars trying to
revitalize Main Street, which has long been
pegged as a retail destination.
But this year has brought a series of
projects, programs and events that has
sparked new life in the old shopping
district.
Among them:
■ The North Carolina-based Mast General
Store in the old Lourie’s building, which
opens this week and promises to be a desti-
nation for shoppers and attract other
retailers.
■ A new Nickelodeon art house theater
and media center, being built in the former
Fox Theater next to Lourie’s beginning in
November, which would bring foot traffic
to the street day and night and spur other
arts activities in the area.
■ A new garage at Sumter and Taylor
streets that will help ease the parking
crunch.
■ A city program intended to help building
owners improve their facades should make
the area more attractive. GERRY MELENDEZ/GMELENDEZ@THESTATE.COM

2. HEART OF THE CITY

GATHERING ON MAIN Jessie Rearden prepares her arts and crafts booth for the Main Street Marketplace, one of the events and businesses that
have been drawing people to Main Street, in good times and bad.
Festivals and regular events that
bring people to Main Street

Main Street Marketplace. 10 a.m. to

2 p.m. each Friday in May, June, September
and October on Boyd Plaza in front of the
Columbia Art Museum. Crafts, fruits, local
specialties, organic food and vegetables
Columbia Open Studios. Art studios
inside the historic Arcade Mall, 1332 Main St.,
are open as part of this weekend’s citywide
artists studio tour, which continues today from
noon to 6 p.m.
First Thursdays. 6-9 p.m. on the first
Thursday of each month. Businesses keep
their doors open late, offering a mix of spe-
cials, events, art and entertainment
Happy Hour History Tour. 5:30-7:30
p.m. Fridays in May and October. A guided tour
starting at the State House offers insight into
the city’s history, focusing on life on Main
Street and in the downtown corridor. Partici-
pants stop at historic sites and receive two
free beverages and appetizers along the way.
Reservations required. Call (803) 252-1770, KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM
ext. 24, or email reservations@historiccolum-
bia.org
Latin Festival. Aug. 27
3. EMERGING ARTS DISTRICT
The Columbia Art Museum, Main Street’s anchor, is being joined by other
Greek Festival. Sept. 15-17 arts venues.
Italian Festival. Oct. 22
Urban Tour. April 2012. Live entertain-
ment, a glimpse into downtown living spaces
and special offers and giveaways from mer-
4. MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR RETAIL > > >
chants Mast General Store, which opens Wednesday, is expected to usher in a new
wave of shops and restaurants.
Wing Fling. May 2012 C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM

ONLINE AT THESTATE.COM PRODUCING THIS SECTION

Interactive walking tour: Take a block-by-block walking Reporters: Adam Beam, Dawn Hinshaw, Jeff Wilkinson
tour down Main Street Contributing: John Sherrer, director of cultural resources,
Historic Columbia Foundation
Photo galleries: Staff photography that provides a peek
inside Main Street businesses, apartments and condos Photographers: C. Aluka Berry, Kim Kim Foster-Tobin,
Tracy Glantz, Gerry Melendez
Interactive map: Main Street highlights, including videos
produced by the Historic Columbia Foundation on some Designer: Kelly Cobb
key architectural features Editor: Eileen Waddell
Online: Kelly Davis, Rachael Lowe
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM

COVER PHOTO: Folks make their way down Main

Street, headed toward Gervais Street.
D2 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 | THE STATE | WWW.THESTATE.COM
 THE POWER BLOCK
FROM GERVAIS TO LADY

CHARACTER

Welcome to S.C.’s power center

1200 block is home
to lawyers, lobbyists,
politicians, bureaucrats
and bankers
By JEFF WILKINSON
jwilkinson@thestate.com
The view through the floor-to-
ceiling, wall-to-wall window in the
McNair Law Firm’s new 18th-floor
lobby is stunning.
It feels like you can almost reach
across Gervais Street and touch the
copper dome of the State House.
The effect is singular. You’re in a
place of power.
The motto of the firm — the
state’s third-largest — is that they
operate at the intersection of busi-
ness and government.
“And now we literally do,” said
chief executive and managing part-
ner David Tigges.
The modern, wedge-shaped,
all-glass Main & Gervais building,
built by Atlanta developer John
Holder, put an exclamation point
on the city’s and the state’s “power
block,” the 1200 block of Main
Street, arguably the most politically
influential chunk of real estate in
South Carolina:
■ The McNair Law Firm shares the
Main & Gervais building, which
opened last year, with the National
Bank of South Carolina and East
Coast shopping center giant Edens
& Avant.
■ Next door, slightly off Main but
with a 1201 Main Street address, is
the 25-story Capitol Center — the
state’s tallest building. It houses
state agencies like the S.C. Depart-
ment of Commerce and, on the top
floor, the private Capital City Club.
■ Across Main Street is the First
Citizens tower, which opened in
2006. It is home to the bank’s cor-
porate offices and the influential
Nexsen Pruet law firm — the
David Tigges is chief executive of the McNair law firm, at the
corner of Gervais and Main streets.
state’s second-largest.
■ And just up the street in the 1300
block of Main Street is the Meridi-
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
an Building, which opened in 2004
and houses BankMeridian and the
state’s largest law firm, Nelson
Mullins Riley & Scarborough.
The three new office towers,
built within six years of one anoth-
er, marked the zenith of a construc-
tion boom in Columbia unequalled
since Gen. William T. Sherman’s
troops got tricky with matches
during the Civil War. They filled the
city’s need for first-class office
space for some of the state’s most
powerful entities – and represented
a bit of one-upmanship between
the competing banks and law firms.
Vaughn Granger, who opened
Granger Owings Classic Clothiers
on Main 35 years ago and caters to
the lawyers, lobbyists, politicians,
bureaucrats and bankers that in-
habit the towers, said the 1200
block alone cements Columbia’s
Main Street as South Carolina’s
Main Street.
“Downtown Greenville is nice if
you want to get something to eat
and take a stroll,” he said. “But this
where the power is.”

JEWEL OF THE BLOCK

Chicken and waffles and beer (and no TVs)? You bet

BY JEFF WILKINSON
jwilkinson@thestate.com

It’s Taco Tuesday at The

Whig and Jessika “Rabbit
Punch” Johnson and Laura
“Carter Away” Perozzi —
jammer and blocker re-
spectively for the Columbia
Quad Squad roller derby
team — are up to their tat-
tooed elbows in tortillas and
cheese.
“Anyone can come and
hang out here,” Perozzi says
over an undercurrent of
groovy tunes from the juke-
box and the clink of pint
glasses. “It doesn’t matter
who you are.”
The Whig has a crowd
about as eclectic as they
come: Hipsters like Johnson
and Perozzi, State House
politicos, office workers,
university types. The en-
lightened dive bar hosts any
and all comers.
That’s the way co-owner
Jonathan Robinson likes it.
“At 4 or 5 in the afternoon
you have lawyers and in-
terns from (office towers)
across the street and a
handful of USC faculty,” he
said. “At nine or 10 you’ll
have older USC students.
Late night, it’s the hipster
rock and roll crowd.”
Opened in 2005 in the
basement of the historic
building that houses Colum- C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
bia’s ABC network affiliate, Jessika ‘Rabbit Punch’ Johnson, left, and Laura ‘Carter Away’ Perozzi enjoy tacos and beer at The Whig on a recent Tuesday night.
The Whig got its name from The restaurant and bar is below street level at Gervais and Main streets.
the 19th century’s Whig
Party — a nod to the State TVs. No beer signs. No Guns N’ Roses and the Greater Columbia Society grilled cheeses and smoked And, being in the base-
House across the street — dance floor. No stage. B-52s, but how many times for the Preservation of Soul gouda mac-and-cheese. For ment of a former bank, the
and the wig shops that line But it does have one of can you hear Paradise City spins records from 6:30 p.m. special occasions, they Whig also boasts a very
parts of Main Street. the coolest juke boxes in the and Rock Lobster?” until midnight. serve up chicken and comfortably furnished vault.
It was inspired by Rob- Southeast, one that changes Occasionally, The Whig The Whig also features waffles. Yes, vault.
inson’s and co-founder Dino with the bartenders’ will have live music — “but better-than-you-would-think “It’s straight bar food, but “We definitely wanted a
Pournaras’ desire to open attitudes. only people we like,” Rob- food. In addition to the pop- we use all fresh ingredients, place with character,” Rob-
something a little more “We weed out the songs inson said. ular 50-cent tacos on Tues- so that makes a difference,” inson said. “So we did what
urban than other bars in that drive us crazy,” Rob- Wednesday is discounted day, the everyday menu has the third co-owner, Phil nobody else in Columbia
Colatown. There are no inson said. “I mean, we like pint night. Each Sunday, the pizza, burgers, three-cheese Bailey, said. was doing.”

EYECATCHER WHO WORKS HERE

Don’t miss this historical detail

Shopkeeper finds a Palmetto niche

BALCONY, BRENNEN
BUILDING,1210-1214 MAIN ST.
Owners of Main Street buildings of
all sizes built before the Civil War and
through the 1870s and 1880s loved
heavy metal. Styles and sizes varied
widely, but this once-prevalent architec-
tural element lends an air of sophis-
tication to even the most modest of
structures.
While not original to the circa-1870
Brennen Building, this 19th-century
cast iron balcony features an intricate,
curvilinear grapevine design.
— John Sherrer, Historic Columbia
Foundation
Martha Studstill opened her Uptown Gifts in
October of 2008 — just in time for the economy
to crash.
But with hard work and a LOT of person-
alized, South Carolina-specific gifts to offer,
Studstill has tapped in to a niche market that is
paying off.
She sells S.C. crafts, S.C. foods, S.C.-themed
just-about-anything to tourists, conventioneers
and Fort Jackson parents who take time to visit
the State House just a half-block away.
“You get a lot more tourists there than anyone
realizes,” she said. “It’s a shame it isn’t open on
Saturday.”
But a big part of her business is personalized
gifts (monogrammed, stainless steel oyster
knife, anyone?) and gift baskets featuring some
of the best products the state has to offer.
Some of her most loyal customers are the
lawyers, bankers and lobbyists in the office
towers that surround her, who want to give vis-
iting clients a little South Carolina flavor to take
home with them.
“They are businesspeople, and they under-
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
stand local business,” she said. “So they’ve been
Martha Studstill lets a fresh breeze in as she opens the doors to her store, very supportive.”
Uptown Gifts. The store specializes in S.C.-themed items. — Jeff Wilkinson

WWW.THESTATE.COM | THE STATE | SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 D3

 THE COSMOPOLITAN BLOCKFROM LADY TO WASHINGTON

CHARACTER
EYECATCHER

This block says ‘big city’ more

Don’t miss these
historical details

than any other in Columbia

SWAGS, BARRINGER
BUILDING, 1350 MAIN ST.
When erected in 1903,
Columbia’s first skyscraper
merged modern construction
with classical styling, in-
cluding the use of a dec-
orative swag of greenery,
flowers, and fruits that em-
bellishes its roofline. Over a
century old, this Main Street
landmark still has its swag
thanks to the efforts of the
folks at Capital Places who
have rehabilitated the build-
ing into a mixed-use property
featuring the First National
Bank and apartments within
a historic setting.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY GERRY MELENDEZ/GMELENDEZ@THESTATE.COM

Jimmy Rogers chats with customer Scott Schwind, an attorney from Houston, inside Granger Owings Classic Clothiers.

By JEFF WILKINSON One of the main reasons Grang-

CARTOUCHE,
CONSOLIDATED BUILDING,
1328 MAIN ST.
Taken at face value a
building’s façade can say a
lot. It’s even easier when the
structure features a dec-
orative badge telling you
when it was built or who the
original owner was. Integrat-
ed into Columbia’s Meridian
Building in 2004, the façade
of the Consolidated Building
once concealed a
19th-century property reno-
vated with a Moorish flair by
architect J. Carroll Johnson in
1912.
— John Sherrer, Historic
Columbia Foundation
jwilkinson@thestate.com
On any given weekday, the 1300
block of Main Street is as cosmo-
politan as Columbia gets — may-
be the only block in the city that
could even be compared to the
delectable mix of businesses and
people one finds in the Big Apple.
Artists and bankers. Power
brokers and street vendors. Gov-
ernment workers and downtown
apartment dwellers.
The 1300 block has it all: a New
York-style newsstand, a fabric
shop catering to the theater
crowd, a hip independent radio
station, and an international fash-
ion designer.
The fashion designer is Vaughn
Granger, who has operated Grang-
er Owings Classic Clothiers on the
block for 35 years.
His business is not just a high-
end men’s retail store but also a
global business.
The business has morphed
from selling stylish Southern
menswear such as Oxford, Polo
and Hickey Freeman, to market-
ing “made-to-measure” suits de-
signed by Granger and Massachu-
setts-based designer Richard Ni-
Travis Hollis arranges mannequins inside the high-end clothing
shop, which has done business on Main Street for 35 years.
colas Grieco. They use Italian
material for suits manufactured in
Chili and Portugal and sold to
nearly 80 outlets nationwide un-
der the RNG label.
“You have to be very creative in
today’s market,” said Granger,
who still works the retail floor
from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily.
“We can’t just do what we did 10
years ago.”
A decade ago, Granger notes,
there were 16 specialty men’s
clothiers in downtown Columbia.
Today, there are just two, Granger
Owings and Britton’s.
er said he has survived is that he
diversified his business while still
catering to the men and women
who work in the office towers in
the 1200 and 1300 block.
“We still have the State House,
and this Main Street is the state’s
capital,” Granger said. “Because
of the capital, you have more
lobbyists, bankers and lawyers,
and they all wear suits.”
Also benefiting from the po-
werbroker crowd are the restau-
rants, such as Zoe’s Kitchen, At-
lanta Bread Co. and Chick-fil-A,
whose lunch crowds are as likely
to include ex-governors and Cabi-
net secretaries as they are office
workers.
Celebrity S.C. Philharmonic
conductor Morihiko Nakahara
lives on the block. And with dis-
tinctive architecture, such as the
gleaming, new 18-story Meridian
office tower (home to the Nelson
Mullins Riley & Scarborough law
firm), and the century-old Arcade
Mall and Barringer Building
(home to WXRY radio), there is
no more distinctive or thriving
block in the city.
“The street has never been
better,” Granger says.

WHO LIVES HERE

Maestro walks to work

By JEFF WILKINSON
jwilkinson@thestate.com
Morihiko Nakahara, music direc-
tor and conductor of the S.C. Phil-
harmonic, has two jobs and no car.
It’s only a 10-minute walk from his
Main Street apartment atop the Bar-
ringer Building to the Phil’s offices in
the Vista.
But getting to his other gig as
“resident” conductor of the Spokane
(Washington) Symphony Orchestra
is a little more complicated.
“It’s like a 14-hour commute,” he
said.
The 12-story Barringer Building at
the corner of Washington and Main
was built in 1903 and was South
Carolina’s first skyscraper. Since the
1990s, it and other buildings along
the street have slowly been convert-
ed into condos and apartments, par-
ticularly by Main Street pioneer
developers Capitol Places, the com-
pany made up of the father and son
team of Tom and Jeff Prioreschi.
Currently, and what might be
surprising to some, there are 226
condos and apartments on Main
Street, housing about 300 people.
And 28 more apartments are coming
to the old Lourie’s building as part of
the Mast General Store project.
Nakahara said he chose Main
Street when he moved here three
years ago because it would be a dif-
ferent experience for him.
“I’ve never lived downtown any-
where before,” he said. “I always
wanted to.”
He surfed the Internet, checked
around, and chose the one-bedroom
New York-style loft on the 12th floor
of the Barringer Building for its
20-foot tall ceiling, east-facing win-
dows and nice view.
The maestro gets his hair cut at
Salon Sole in the Arcade Mall, often
hangs out at Mainstreet Restaurant
in the basement of the Sheraton
Hotel across the street, has lunch at
M Cafe on Sumter Street and walks
to Vista hangouts like the Oyster Bar
and Flying Saucer.
When he does have to rent a car
KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM
for a day trip, he does all the grocery
shopping and errands he can. Morihiko Nakahara splits his time between Columbia, where he is music director of the South
“I hit them all,” he says. “Target, Carolina Philharmonic and Spokane, Wash. He lives in an apartment at the top of the Barringer
Publix, Earth Fare. I load up.” Building, built in 1903 as the state’s first skyscraper.

D4 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 | THE STATE | WWW.THESTATE.COM

 THE COSMOPOLITAN BLOCK
FROM LADY TO WASHINGTON

JEWEL OF THE BLOCK LUNCH SPOT

Marbled mall an Italianate wonder

By JEFF WILKINSON
jwilkinson@thestate.com

At age 54, Tish Lowe

found herself without a job
and with a chance to do
something she had always
wanted to do.
The Jackson, Miss., native
had travelled the globe work-
ing for the World Bank, until
she was downsized out of
her position. After the layoff,
she decided to get a new hair
style and wandered into a
salon and chose a stylist at
random. The two chatted
about a mutual interest – art
– and the stylist mentioned
she had attended an art
school in Florence, Italy.
Something clicked.
“You never know how one
person can change your life,”
says Lowe, who spent the
next six years in Florence
learning to paint portraits. “I
think it was planned from
above.”
Today, she lives in Colum-
bia to be close to her sister
and rents a studio in the
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
second floor of the Arcade
Mall in the 1300 block of Folks enjoy lunch at Zoe's Kitchen, which
Main Street, turning out operates on the first floor of the Meridian
commissioned portraits. building on Main Street.
She loves the arcade — the
city’s first indoor mall, com-
pleted a week before the
Titanic sunk in 1912 — be- Zoe’s Kitchen drawing crowds
cause it was built to look like
an Italian street, with marble Zoe’s Kitchen opened about 1½ years ago in the old
walls decorated with cherubs Birds on a Wire location on the ground floor of the
and “street lights.” Meridian building.
“When I walk in in the The Birmingham-based chain serves Greek-inspired
morning it makes me hap- Mediterranean food, from salads to wraps as well as a
py,” says Lowe, now 63. Southern pimento cheese sandwich – but on rye
Some newspaper accounts bread.
say the “L”-shaped building The Main Street location serves breakfast and
was modeled after the Galle- lunch, and customers flock to its outdoor tables when
ria in Milan, Italy. the weather is good.
The two-story arcade, On any given lunch hour, you are as likely to see a
which also has a full base- state senator or an ex-governor sitting next to an of-
ment, opened with 17 stores fice worker or bank president in the restaurant’s
on the ground floor and 34 bright cheery dining room.
offices on the second floor. Zoe’s is one of several dining alternatives on the
Originally an open-air 1300 block, including Chick-fil-A, Atlanta Bread Com-
arcade, the building was FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE STATE pany, Tony’s Pizza and the hotdog cart Carolina
enclosed during a renovation Natural light, marble and old-fashioned lanterns give the Arcade Mall an Dawgs.
in 1971 to create an air-con- old-fashioned charm. — Jeff Wilkinson
ditioned shopping mall.
The renovation also in-
cluded turning the arcade’s
14,600-square-foot basement
into “Columbia Down Un-
der,” a collection of restau-
rants, taverns and specialty
shops.
The entertainment district
was instantly successful, but
within a year crowds began
to dwindle. Much of the
decline was attributed to
clashes between Fort Jack-
son soldiers and USC stu-
dents during the Vietnam
era. But the owners blamed
flagging economic condi-
tions for the entertainment
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
venue’s demise.
Most retailers struggled Artist Tish Lowe works on a piece in her studio at the
with the decline of Down Arcade Mall.
Under and began closing up
or moving out in the
mid-1970s. Since then, the strong retail – jewelry and recently toured the basement
arcade has been clothing stores, a salon, a to see it if it might be pos-
underutilized. deli, a tailor shop and a shoe sible to reestablish “Down
John H. Robison Jr. of repair shop. It also has been Under.”
Charlotte, chairman of UV- used as a music and arts But it is the old, not the
EST Investment Services venue for special events. And new, that Lowe likes. The
Group, bought the arcade in a dozen artists such as Lowe natural light. The marble.
1988. have taken up residence The “L” shape. And its centu-
Today, the ground floor there. ry-old character.
facing Main Street has some Mayor Steve Benjamin “It inspires me,” she said.

WHO WORKS HERE

Vendor makes ‘a great dog’
By JEFF WILKINSON
jwilkinson@thestate.com

Kylin Doster is a survivor.

The Allentown, Penn.,
native moved to South Caro-
lina in the 1990s to work for
Mack Truck in Winnsboro.
When the plant shut down
production in 2002, Doster
found himself a long way
from home and without a
job.
“I was laid off for over a
year,” he said. “So I took my
last $2,000 and purchased a
hot dog stand from a guy in C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
Florida.” Carolina Dawgs’ Kylin Doster serves up hot dogs in
Now, with a folding table, front of the Granger Owings store.
hot dog cart and cooler for
drinks and condiments,
Doster peddles Carolina a year for the street vendor’s welcome at the front en-
Dawgs on the 1300 block in license, and stores his hot trance to their very upscale
front of Granger Owings dog cart in the arcade across clothiers.
Classic Clothiers. the street for $60 a month. “We take it seriously,”
“I have a nice house,” he He sells regular hotdogs Doster said of himself and
said. “I can take care of my for $2 and jumbo dogs for his uncle Aubrey Talbott,
family.” $3. A bargain. And they’re who helps run the stand.
Doster is one of about 10 good. Especially with Dos- “You have to make good
carts the city of Columbia ter’s homemade chili. food.”
has licensed around Main “A great dog,” said Doster’s business took a
Street, although he is often Vaughn Granger, co-owner big hit last year when SCA-
the only one working. and co-founder of Granger NA moved from Main Street
Doster pays the city $500 Owings, who said Doster is to a campus in Cayce. WWW.THESTATE.COM | THE STATE | SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 D5

EYECATCHER
Don’t miss this
historical detail
CORNICE,
PALMETTO BUILDING,
1400 MAIN ST.
While “green” design is
all the rage today, the
color green was synony-
mous with Columbia’s
second skyscraper, built
in 1913. Then the Palmet-
to National Bank, this
Main Street gem today
houses the Sheraton
Hotel. A copper cornice
turned green with age
crowns the roof of this
iconic structure known for
its Palmetto tree motifs
cast in Indiana limestone.
— John Sherrer, Historic
Columbia Foundation
LUNCH SPOTS
Turn the corner for good
lunch spots at reasonable
prices:
TONY’S PIZZA, 1120
WASHINGTON ST.
Try the baked spaghetti
with salad and hot bread
($6.99), super salad with
grilled chicken and hot
bread ($6.75) or the black
angus sub with melted
cheese and au jus dip
($6.99).
HAMPTON PLACE CAFE,
1230 HAMPTON ST.
Popular options are the
turkey and Swiss sandwich
with homemade honey
mustard ($5.95), turkey
veggie delight with home-
made feta ranch ($6.15)
and the hali cali, a turkey
sandwich with sprouts/
spinach/avocado and garlic
mayo ($5.75).
FANCY THAT, 1212
HAMPTON ST.
You can’t go wrong with
the daily special ($4.99) in
this lunch spot in the alley
behind the Marriott, wheth-
er it’s chicken pot pie, roast
beef, homemade lasagna or
hamburger steak. They use
fresh produce, including
roasting potatoes off the
owner’s brother’s farm in
Orangeburg County. They
make their own desserts,
too. Just $1.
— Dawn Hinshaw
For bartender, work is good, Main is good
By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com
Tara Novak, 32, is a bartender at
Garnets Sports Bar inside the Co-
lumbia Marriott.
From behind the bar, Novak
engages in conversation with hotel
guests celebrating a college gradu-
ation, a wedding or the birth of a
child or grandchild at the hospital
around the corner. Then there’s the
occasional “teary Mom” who, in a
mix of pride and sadness, just par-
ticipated in graduation at Fort
D6 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 | THE STATE | WWW.THESTATE.COM
THE HOSPITALITY BLOCK
FROM WASHINGTON TO HAMPTON
Hotels ‘selling’ what’s
within walking distance
Marriott Hotel and Resorts bell captain Eugene Postlethwaite shares a laugh with a driver after helping customers with their luggage.
Postlethwaite, who is a native of Bermuda, has worked at the Marriott on Main Street for more than 20 years.
By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com
The Marriott and the Sheraton
are on opposite corners of their
block of Main Street, but they share
the same goal: To make sure visi-
tors to downtown Columbia see the
city in its best light.
Employees, from front-desk
employees to bellmen, go through
training at the visitor’s bureau to
learn about family attractions,
restaurants and cultural offerings.
“Our hotel does well if people
come to the city and want to come
back,” said Jason Reader, general
manager of the Columbia Marriott.
“Really, it’s about selling the city.”
And Tony Malizia, director of
sales for the Sheraton Columbia
Downtown Hotel, said there’s a lot
to sell — and within walking dis-
tance. “That’s what travelers want.”
The 1400 block of Main Street
has a total of 435 hotel rooms —
and nearly 1 million square feet of
office space. That’s one of the larg-
est concentrations of office space in
the city, with one-tenth of Colum-
bia’s entire office market within
three buildings there.
There’s an interplay between the
hotel and office use on the block:
The hotels cater to business trav-
elers during the workweek.
On weekends, they are social
hotels, their rooms occupied by
people visiting Columbia for wed-
dings or sporting events.
The two hotels have similar oc-
cupancy rates, about 75 percent so
far this year for the Marriott and
about 70 percent for the Sheraton.
That means both are doing “very
well” compared to hotels in the
metropolitan area and the state as a
whole, said Tom Sponseller, with
the S.C. Hospitality Association.
(The metro average is 58 percent
occupancy.)
Last weekend, Catherine Plein
was in town for a wedding held at a
WHO WORKS HERE
Jackson and is sending a child
off to an unfamiliar assignment.
“It’s a good mingling bar,”
Novak said, “because you never
know who you’re going to see
and what you’re going to see.”
On Sundays, when she notic-
es a patron wearing an atten-
dance sticker from the Columbia
Museum of Art, she offers a 10
percent discount on food.
She has worked along Main
Street for nearly three years.
Novak recently took her
CHARACTER
Sheraton Hotel, Washington and Main streets, in the Palmetto
Building
chapel downtown. She lives in Los
Angeles but, as a 2005 graduate of
USC, maintains ties to Columbia.
2-year-old daughter, Millie,
down the street to the White
Mule to hear some bluegrass
(“she loves to dance”) and said
she’s “uber excited” about the
opening of the new Nickelodeon
movie theater nearby.
Novak has worked in the hos-
pitality industry since her first
job, at 15. She enjoys the work
because she’s a people person.
“Downtown’s getting better,”
Novak said. “It’s getting there.
I’m really excited about Mast
General.”
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.
enamored by the historic stature of
the building.
“It’s just a gorgeous, gorgeous
hotel,” she said. Built as a bank in
1913, the 17-story building retains a
first-floor vault as a cozy bar, has
the original tile mosaic in the lobby
and original wood floors and mold-
ing throughout. It’s decorated with
historic photographs of Columbia,
too.
“I’m glad to see they’re doing
stuff on Main Street,” said Plein,
who nevertheless would like to see
more bars, restaurants and “funky
places to shop.”
“Charleston’s got it nailed,” she
said, “but Columbia’s making
steps.”
As for the three office buildings,
they house bankers, lawyers, ac-
countants and insurance
executives.
In the past 18 months, new ten-
ants have been lured to better-
quality space on Main Street by
landlords who give concessions,
most notably free rent for the first
couple of months, said Ryan Hyler,
vice-president of marketing and
research for Colliers International.
“It’s really put them on par with
suburban rates,” he said.
The largest of the trio on the
block is the painfully vacant Pal-
metto Center, once home to SCA-
NA’s corporate headquarters before
the company — and its 900-plus
employees — left for a suburban
campus in September 2009. There’s
concern about who will fill the
space now.
One recent prospect that got the
city’s legal community buzzing was
the new USC law school, which
would have ushered more than 700
FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE STATE
graduate students and faculty to
classes on Main Street. Sadly, USC
is no longer considering that op-
Plein originally booked a room at
tion, said Billy Way, a broker with
a cheaper hotel, but switched to the
Grubb & Ellis/Wilson Kibler.
Sheraton to join family. She was
KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM
Tara Novak has been a bartender at Garnets Sports Bar in the
Marriott for three years.
 THE HOSPITALITY BLOCK
FROM WASHINGTON TO HAMPTON

JEWEL OF THE BLOCK

KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM

The Rooftop lounge is 17 floors above Main Street, giving visitors to the Sheraton Columbia Downtown Hotel a panoramic view of the city — and beyond.

A view from The Rooftop

By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com
As urban views go, it doesn’t get much better than The
Rooftop.
The 17th-story bar atop the Sheraton is a favorite for
legislative and business receptions, happy hour during the
work week and casual weekend evenings.
The view from Main and Washington takes in land-
marks below and the western horizon, breeze and sky.
“It’s panoramic,” said Emily Martin, who comes to town
about once a month on business.
“You get the feel of Columbia from up here.”
She and a friend, Mary Kate Kaminski, were catching
up over a glass of wine one evening last week when a
storm made them head for cover.
While part of The Rooftop is open-air, most of the room
is covered.
It’s comfortable pretty much year round, with heat
lamps for winter and fans for summer.
Bartender Alicia Fulton said she’s never known it to
feel hot up there.
The Rooftop tends to attract a business clientele, she
said.
“You meet a lot of people who say, ‘Oh, I like Colum-
bia. I come here all the time.’”
Added Tony Malizia, the hotel’s sales director: “That
rooftop is packed every single night, especially for happy
hour. Just to be able to go outside and enjoy the weather
we’re having right now — it’s a whole different
atmosphere.”
The bar opens each day at 4:30 p.m.
And oftentimes on weekends, there’s music.

JUST AROUND THE CORNER

Step down into Hampton Street Vineyard

By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com

No stranger to good restau-

rants, Amelia Siokos eats at
Hampton Street Vineyard three
or four times a week.
Siokos, 58, prefers a meat-
less diet but said she can’t pass
up the lamb, salmon or crab
cakes at the restaurant just
around the corner from the
Sylvan’s clock. The chef, Wil-
liam Murphy, is more than
willing to accommodate her
with something tasty like len-
tils and spinach, sliced toma-
toes and onions.
Hampton Street Vineyard is
upscale but relaxed.
Past a set of sidewalk cafe
tables, beyond a set of colorful
planters and down a set of
steps, the restaurant is small
and immaculate. Patrons often
photograph the unusual wine
room, with a selection winning
acclaim in Wine Spectator
magazine.
The restaurant was designed
by architect Lesesne Monteith,
whose office is next door.
On a recent visit, Lucinda
Williams played over the sound
system while a group of wom-
en toting presents asked owner
Leigh Talmadge to snap a pho-
to. “We’re not very formal peo-
ple,” Murphy said.
Siokos, whose grandparents
ran the folksy Capitol Restau- KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM

rant on Main, which closed a The Hampton Street Vineyard is known for its wine selection, which has won the acclaim of Wine Spectator magazine.
decade ago, agrees. The owners say customers often choose the wine room as a backdrop for commemorative photos.

WWW.THESTATE.COM | THE STATE | SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 D7


Museum anchors lively days, nights
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
Sylvan’s clock is located on
the corner of Hampton and
Main streets.
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
Keenan Fountain is located in
front of the Columbia
Museum of Art on the corner.
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D8 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 | THE STATE | WWW.THESTATE.COM
THE ARTS & ARCHITECTURE BLOCK
F R O M H A M P TO N TO TAY LO R
CHARACTER
By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com
When the Columbia Museum
of Art brought the “Turner to
Cezanne” exhibition to the city
last year, chef William Murphy
was able to introduce his menu
to first-time customers from
Charleston.
“The art museum is really the
anchor of Main Street,” said
Murphy, whose Hampton Street
Vineyard has become a destina-
tion for out-of-town visitors, as
well as Columbia residents living
above storefronts downtown.
If Main Street were a shopping
mall, in other words, the muse-
um would be the department
store drawing customers to the
nine-block corridor from Gervais
Street to Elmwood Avenue.
Now more than ever, art-in-
fused events have spilled out of
the museum to enliven evenings
along Main Street.
“The 20-somethings, the
30-somethings, are really em-
bracing the Main Street art GERRY MELENDEZ/GMELENDEZ@THESTATE.COM
scene,” said Joelle Ryan-Cook, Curt Chadwick checks out the Who Shot Rock & Roll photography exhibit inside the Columbia
deputy director of the museum, a Museum of Art.
presence on Main Street since
1998.
The 1500 block, in particular, 1988 manager Bill Pruett said. There, cy’s going-out-of-business sale.
is defined by art and ■ A monthly, after-hours arts in another art form, jewelers Now she works in the
architecture: event organized by the owner of customize about half the bridal store-turned-museum.
■ The museum, which, after the high-end eyeglass store rings the store sells. “I feel like we’re experiencing
snagging the major masterworks Frame of Mind that, three years The block from Hampton to two concurrent evolutions,” she
exhibition in 2009, has boosted later, has expanded to a corridor Taylor is the site of noteworthy said.
membership by 50 percent from of opportunities to see art public art, too, from the Sylvan’s One is corporate investment in
three years ago and recently ■ Sylvan’s jewelry store, which clock on the corner to the chain Main Street by banks, lawyers
attracted its biggest opening has remained a commercial cor- between buildings by local char- and real estate executives. The
crowd with “Who Shot Rock & nerstone in a handsome, three- acter Blue Sky and the secluded other is a grass-roots effort
Roll,” a 1960s-centered collection story building erected in 1871 wall of water at the rear of the among artists and small-business
of rock-star portraits and docu- and considered by many the
museum plaza. owners to bring vitality to Main.
mentary photos that closes today most important structure on
Ryan-Cook is one of the muse- “It feels really great to have
■ The Columbia City Ballet, Main Street
which attracts more than 500 um’s home-grown talents. She that energy that’s starting to
“It’s a great old building, and
young dancers a year to the con- it’s very intriguing to people,” remembers buying highball happen here on weekends and
servatory it opened on Main in glasses for $1 apiece at the Ma- after 5.”
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To advertise
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STAJJ6928-99-3

Beer, bands, poetry create ‘coffee shop kind of feel’
Folks enjoy drinks and music at the White Mule, which brings singer-songwriters to town for concerts in an intimate setting.
By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com
For the past two years, the White Mule
(the name is a sly reference to bootleg
liquor) has been a subterranean gathering
place for people who love music.
The Main Street bar — a shotgun build-
ing with exposed brick, wood beams and
concrete floors — brings in out-of-town
musicians, typically singer-songwriters
with a loyal following, and provides a
comfortable stage where noteworthy lo-
cals can play in the spotlight.
WHO LIVES HERE
Downtown is her neighborhood
Maureen Morris and her husband, Jim, moved into their three-bedroom,
three-bathroom condominium at Capitol Places four years ago. ‘We like living
downtown. We can walk to work,’ she says. They eat at restaurants nearby, and
enjoy walking and looking at art downtown, too.
By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com
From her fourth-floor windows, Mau-
reen Morris might see children painting at
the museum across the street, neighbors
entertaining on nearby terraces or birds
flying past the spire at St. Peter’s Catholic
Church.
“That’s what we love,” she said, “is
seeing the sky.”
Morris and her husband, Jim, have
lived on Main Street for the past four
years. They pounced on one of the first
condominiums available after realizing it
suited them to live within walking dis-
tance to the places they go most.
And they can walk to work: Jim teaches
at the University of South Carolina, while
Maureen is an OB-GYN nurse at Palmetto
Health Baptist.
On evenings they don’t care to cook,
they can walk to dinner.
They can walk to art exhibitions or
THE ARTS & ARCHITECTURE BLOCK F R O M H A M P TO N TO TAY LO R
JEWEL OF THE BLOCK
“It’s always a real good-natured scene,”
said Brenton Sadreameli, a 26-year-old
businessman playing slide guitar on a
recent weeknight.
What started as a small audience at 9
p.m. grew as the evening went on. They
called it a night at 1 a.m.
Paper lanterns, strung up along the
ceiling, define the bar where wooden
stools are arranged in the half light. A
baseball game played on a very small
television. The sound was off.
Along one wall, a fellow sat drawing in
a notebook and drinking a beer. Ian
KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM
movies.
Maureen Morris walks for exercise, too,
giving her a sidewalk view of property
owners tearing old facades from store-
fronts to expose gorgeous architectural
details. She’s been watching progress on
the homeless center, at Main Street and
Elmwood Avenue, with interest, too. She
expects it to improve people’s lives.
Downtown is her neighborhood.
She pays attention to what’s going on
there.
She shops at the businesses there and
attends the events held there.
She’s excited about Mast General
Store, as much as anything, because it’s
bringing more residents to Main Street,
with 28 new apartments above the shop.
Today, about 300 people live in Main’s
condos, according to the Center City
Partnership.
And since moving in, “We’ve made a
new group of friends,” Morris said.
Brown, 34, pedals people around town in
a rickshaw. He’d been given this destina-
tion a few times, so decided to check it
out.
“I figured Tuesday wouldn’t be so busy,”
he said, “and there’d be light here so I
could draw.”
He described the White Mule as having
“a coffee shop kind of feel” with a nice
selection of beer.
Out back is a patio arranged with metal
tables and chairs. Customers are consci-
entious about not being too noisy, since
condos overlook the space.
WHO WORKS HERE
‘People come
just to admire
the building’
By DAWN HINSHAW
dhinshaw@thestate.com
Carolina Brice always wears a gold
lapel pin, a tiny angel she purchased from
an estate jewelry collection at Sylvan’s.
“I never go anyplace without it. I pull it
out every day, even on weekends,” said
Brice, shipping clerk at the jewelry store
at Main and Hampton streets.
Brice has worked at Sylvan’s, a Main
Street landmark, for 41 of her 71 years.
It’s a pleasant place to work, tranquil
and beautiful. People come there on hap-
py occasions. Sometimes they stop in just
to admire the crystal and jewelry.
“A lot of people say, ‘I feel so good
when I come here,’” Brice said.
“A lot of people come just to admire the
building: the basket that goes up and
down, the chandelier.”
The basket, on a long string, allows a
jeweler working on a second-story cat-
walk to ring a bell and send his finished
work to a salesperson below.
Follow the central chandelier up the
chain to the ceiling, and the plaster forms
delicate flowers in rich colors.
WWW.THESTATE.COM | THE STATE | SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 D9
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
Someone came from the direction of the
kitchen carrying a pizza, aromatic with
fresh basil, Roma tomatoes and mozzarel-
la cheese.
Dave Britt, 40, still books bands for the
White Mule after founding it with two
friends in 2009, then selling it at the first
of the year to owners who have promised
to make few changes but have reopened
the kitchen for lunch.
Groups from USC’s English Department
gather here for poetry readings, too.
“Everyone feels comfortable here,” he
said.
EYECATCHER
Don’t miss this historical detail
PILASTER, KRESS BUILDING,
1508 MAIN ST.
Groovy is the best way to describe this
circa-1934 Art Deco building. After rehabilita-
tion, this landmark now offers spaces for both
commercial and residential needs along Main
Street. Featuring lotus blossoms, sunbursts
and papyrus plants, this former “five and
dime” store’s decorative columns reflect
America’s fascination with Egyptian culture in
the early part of the 20th century.
— John Sherrer, Historic Columbia
Foundation
KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM
Carolina Brice started work at
Sylvan’s jewelry store in 1970.
Brice is glad to see the new things that
have come to Main Street.
“You feel so good about being down-
town, and the changes,” Brice said.
She and her husband, William, live in
Columbia.
This time of year, she looks forward to
an annual vacation, a week in a far-away
place with family. It’s a tradition that
started after all eight of their children
were grown. They save up and take off
for a place like California, the Bahamas
or Jamaica.
Her angel travels along.

A view of S&S Art Supply and T.O. Thompson Jewelry Repair, stores which share the same building on Main Street.
Harold Thompson runs T.O. Thompson Jewelry Repair store
with his wife, Dorothy. The store still uses a 1947 cash register.
Eric Stockard and his wife, Amanda Ladymon,
own S&S Art Supply at 1633 Main St.
WHO WORKS HERE
Hwa Kim opened Main
Street’s first wig shop
By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
At International Wigs, customers
can browse through the rack of Butt
Boosters and Super Slimming Body
Shapers while listening to a choir sing
“Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled
My Soul” from a small radio hidden
behind one of the hundreds of manne-
quin heads.
It’s a business model that has
worked for Hwa Kim since 1972, when
she came to the United States from
South Korea and opened Main Street’s
first wig shop.
The 65-year-old Kim said she didn’t
know anything about wigs when she
first opened the shop, other than that
most of the world’s wigs were made in
D10 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 | THE STATE | WWW.THESTATE.COM
THE TRANSITION BLOCK
F R O M TAY LO R TO B L A N D I N G
GERRY MELENDEZ/GMELENDEZ@THESTATE.COM
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
Korea. Now they mostly come from
China, she said. And, with three other
wig shops nearby, the 1600 block of
Main Street has become the wig cap-
ital of the Midlands.
Kim said she followed her husband
to the United States — he was sta-
tioned at Fort Jackson. Kim ran the
store for 36 years until, three years
ago, she turned it over to her sister,
Sun. Now Kim says she helps out at
the store three days a week.
Like most long-established Main
Street merchants, Kim misses the
good ol’ days when Main Street was
bustling with people, many of whom
would just walk in the store to look
around.
“Only when they need it, that’s
when they come here,” she said.
CHARACTER
Rub between old and
new causing friction
By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
Main Street’s past and its future
meet in the middle of the 1600
block in a divided, two-story brick
building that sits between a wig
shop and a dry cleaners.
On the right of the building is
T.O. Thompson Jewelry Repair, a
time machine with an R.C. Allen
Combination Cash Register next to
a handwritten sign that reads “WE
DO NOT TAKE CHARGE CARDS.”
On the left is S&S Art Supply,
which gladly accepts charge cards
from anyone wanting some graffiti
spray paint. Both businesses are
run by married couples. The
Thompsons — Harold and Dorothy
— are in their 80s, while Eric
Stockard and Amanda Ladymon
have just returned from their hon-
eymoon.
The Thompsons miss what Main
Street used to be: four lanes of
practical department stores. Stock-
ard and Ladymon, who moved their
store here from Rosewood Drive,
yearn for what Main Street could
be: a creative mix of art galleries
and speciality shops.
“I’m too old for realizing that
“There is no shopping here.”
Hwa Kim has worked at International Wigs since helping open it in 1972. The store is
you’ve got to have modern conve-
niences like they do up and down
Main Street,” said Harold Thomp-
son, who still sells Elgin and Bena-
rus watches, some which have sat
on his shelves, unsold, for 30 years.
“If you’d have lived back in the old
days you would, too,” he said.
The 1600 block is both dying and
growing. Old stalwarts such as the
Main & Taylor shoe store and Tots
to Teens clothing are vanishing,
soon to be replaced by off-beat arts
institutions like the Nickelodeon
theater and, possibly, the proposed
Tapp’s Center for the Arts. The
result is a lingering tension among
the dead and the living.
An example is First Thursday, an
art crawl during which some busi-
nesses transform into mini art
galleries. S&S will get 200 people
in their store in two hours. Nearby,
Kimbrell’s Furniture opened its
doors, too. But no one came in.
“Our customers could care less
about art,” said Flo Dowden, who
has been a Kimbrell’s saleswoman
since 1962. “God, we used to do big
business. We had four salespeople
on this floor. We’ve got one now.
And if business don’t pick up, we’ll
be closing our doors.”
located at 1645 Main St.
GERRY MELENDEZ/GMELENDEZ@THESTATE.COM
In addition to art supplies, Stock-
ard and Ladymon show work from
a local artist each month. They told
this month’s artist, Whitney Le-
Jeune, not to get her hopes up. But
Stockard and Ladymon sold a piece
the day after the show’s opening,
then another one the day after that.
“We are really making a name
for ourselves on our own,” Stock-
ard said. “We are proud to be part
of the revitalization of Main
Street.”
The wild card in all of this is
Mast General Store, which opens
this week on the south end of the
block. Everyone agrees the store
will bring more people to Main
Street, but what customers will it
attract? Will they shop at Kim-
brell’s, or be satisfied with just a
stroll through S&S?
It doesn’t matter to Harold
Thompson.
“I’m biding time. I’m 88 years
old, and my wife says I can’t quit.”
Dorothy Thompson said.: “I’m
afraid if he quits this he may not
even leave the house but watch old
crazy TV. And news. Same thing all
the time.
“Something has to take us out,
we know that.”
C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
 THE TRANSITION BLOCK
F R O M TAY LO R TO B L A N D I N G

JEWEL OF THE BLOCK

EYECATCHER
Don’t miss this historical
detail

MASK, STATE/FOX/
NICKELODEON THEATRE,
1607 MAIN ST.
Rehabilitation work under
way on Main Street’s 1600 block
is bringing smiles to many faces,
particularly to those at the fu-
ture home of the Nickelodeon
Theatre. Within the Art Deco
building’s circa-1936 façade
rest two decorative masks that
cap the building’s pilasters. For
decades, patrons enjoyed mov-
ies under their watchful gaze.
Soon, others will, too!
— John Sherrer, Historic Columbia
Foundation

FILE PHOTOGRAPH/THE STATE

Andy Zalkin wears part of a military-issue fire and heat suit in his Army Navy Store on Main Street.
LUNCH SPOTS
Lunch on the 1600 block of Main
Street can go one of two ways — table-

Careful, it might be loaded

cloths and folded menus, or plastic
cups and a cardboard sign. That’s the
difference between Hennessey’s, a
longtime Main Street restaurant, and
Sammi’s Deli, the new guy who every-
day at lunch sends an employee up
and down Main Street holding a card-
board advertisement.
HENNESSEY’S
By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
The Army Navy Store is pro-
tected by a Belgian-issued 1939
Lahti anti-tank gun — and don’t
bother looking for a price tag
because it’s not for sale.
“It’s sort of like the ducks at
the Memphis hotel, the Peabody.
You know they come down the
elevator and get into the fountain
and things start for the day.
When the gun comes out, we’re
open. When it goes back in,
we’re closed,” owner Andy Zal-
kin said. “It’s brought a lot of
interesting offers, I have to ad-
mit. But I think it’s more impor-
tant for us to keep Main Street
safe from tanks.”
The Army Navy Store opened
in 1947, mostly selling surplus
inventory from the U.S. military.
Zalkin inherited the business in
1982, and he still buys military
surplus. But he also buys lots of
other things, like the world’s
largest underpants (size 100),
next to a sign that reads “go
ahead — have dessert.”
“We try to do things that make
people remember us, that cause
you to think, ‘Well why in the hell
do I have this?’” he said. “That’s
what most of the store is.”
He has a kilt from the Western
Costume Company used in the
1952 movie Brigadoon. He has
condiment bags for mustard seed
and salt made for the Union
Army during the Civil War. He
has an Israeli Defense Forces
T-shirt.
And he has Osama Bin Laden,
hanging by his neck in the front
display window.
“He’s about ready to come
down. I haven’t decided what to
do,” Zalkin said. “I’m thinking
about throwing a stuffed seal on
him.”

Hennessey’s, on the corner of Main

and Blanding streets, features items
such as Black Forest Croissant, Baked
Brie and Mango Barbecue Salmon.
Hennessey’s opened in 1983, making
it one of Main Street’s longest-tenured
restaurants.
Hennessey’s is fine dining at night
but lets its hair down for lunch, accord-
ing to manager Stephen Curtis. Entrees
at Hennessey’s range between $7 and
$9.
In what will be a first for Main, Hen-
nessey’s has plans to add a second-
floor balcony for outdoor dining.
SAMMI’S DELI
Sammi’s Deli has honey teriyaki
wings, Philly cheese steak and the
Sammi Special (turkey breast and roast
beef with melted cheese). A foot-long
sandwich will set you back $7.49, but
the lunch special includes a cheese-
burger with fries and a drink for $5.
Sammi’s Deli has been in Columbia
since 1983 but has been on Main
Street for three years. Owner Hassan
Addahoumi sees the area’s coming
changes as significant. “Main Street
will be the most popular place to have
fun and enjoy your life downtown,” he
said.
JUST AROUND THE CORNER
Steeped in tradition, Villa Tronco embraces Main’s changes
By ADAM BEAM businesses just off Main Street
abeam@thestate.com that hope to benefit from Main
Street’s revival, including this
During World War II, thousands week’s opening of Mast General
of Italian-American soldiers-in- Store. Carmella Roche, Sadie
training got off a Greyhound bus Tronco’s granddaughter, said
on Gervais Street hungry for their she’s already been in contact with
mothers’ cooking. the folks at Mast to ask how she
They found it across the street could support them.
in Sadie Tronco’s kitchen, where “It will be wonderful to see
the Italian-American gladly ac- people shopping downtown
cepted military meal tickets in again,” Roche said. “All my life,
exchange for spaghetti and meat- that’s the way it was. Now with all
balls and pizza. the … different department stores
we have lost over the years, it will
Seventy-one years later, Villa
Tronco is still going strong on be wonderful to see that life on
Blanding Street, just around the Main Street again.”
corner from Main Street, in an The restaurant has made some
iconic 19th century fire station. changes of its own: Members of
There, 86-year-old Carmella Tron- The Palmetto Opera company
co Martin, Sadie Tronco’s daugh- now perform there the first Thurs-
TRACY GLANTZ/TGLANTZ@THESTATE.COM
ter, still makes the cheesecake day of each month. And the res-
Villa Tronco has been along Blanding Street, in a renovated every day — just like her mother taurant offers treats from Paolo’s
fire station, since the early 1940s. Here, owner Carmella taught her. Gelato, which has gelaterias in
Roche, left, visits with Pam Price outside the restaurant. Villa Tronco is one of several Atlanta and Charleston.

WHO LIVES HERE

She shops, lives, buys here

— can’t wait for what’s next
By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
Her name is Molly Harrell,
and she is excited to be here.
“Just hold on, it’s going to
happen. It’s so on the cusp
right now. We are so almost
there. It’s exciting to be there
and see it happening. So it’s
just — it’s cool.”
Harrell, a commercial pho-
tographer, is talking about
Main Street, where she lives in
an apartment in what was
once Tapp’s Department
Store. She’s 48 years old, and
says you haven’t lived until
you’ve been to The Whig “be-
cause it’s fabulous.”
A graduate of the Art In-
stitute of Atlanta in 2002, Har-
rell turned a hobby, photog-
raphy, into a career.
“Photography school was
my midlife crisis,” she said. “I
had my first camera when I
was 17. My mother has the
first portrait I ever took, of her
and my sister when she was
7.”
Tapp’s is the only residential
property in the 1600 block of
Main Street, where Main
Street’s past and future are on
equal display.
Like most people, Harrell is
attracted to what’s new. She
shops at S&S Art Supply. She
buys her glasses at Frame of
Mind, one block away. And
she’s excited about the open-
ing of the Nickelodeon theater.
“It changes daily,” she said.
“It’s such a great community, KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM
it’s wonderful.” Molly Harrell lives in the Tapp’s building, a former department store at Main and Blanding streets.

WWW.THESTATE.COM | THE STATE | SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 D11


By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
For the most part, Main Street
knows itself. Each block has an
identity, for better or worse.
But the last four blocks of Main
Street, just before it crosses over
Elmwood Avenue into north Co-
lumbia, are mysterious.
Are they the public blocks?
There’s the courthouse, City Hall
and a homeless center funded in
part by public money.
Are they the nonprofit blocks?
There’s United Way of the Mid-
lands, Methodist and Greek Or-
thodox churches and Christ Cen-
tral Ministries.
Are they the business blocks?
They have two office towers – one
of them the 17-story Bank of
America building – a row of law-
yers’ offices and a real estate
agency.
Are they the empty blocks?
LUNCH SPOT
KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM
Mac’s on Main is a popular place to have lunch.
Mac’s offers ‘world
famous peach cobbler’
By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
For 12 years, Mac’s on
Main has had to lure people
to Main Street by bringing
in Chicago blues acts and
putting its “world famous
peach cobbler” on the
shelves of local Piggly
Wigglys.
But when Mast General
Store opens its doors this
week, Mac’s owner Barry
Walker said he hopes some
of the millions of dollars
Mast spends on advertise-
ment will spill some custom-
ers his way, one block north.
“Hopefully, (they) can get
them to go to their store,
and I can get them to come
to my restaurant and have
lunch or dinner, you know?”
Walker said.
Mac’s is home to Chef
EYECATCHER
Don’t miss this historical
detail
BRACKET, BROWN BUILDING,
1730-1732 MAIN ST.
They’re not only popular
during March Madness – brack-
ets are cool year-round. Often
highly decorated, this design
convention does more than just
keep up a building’s appear-
ance. Many times brackets
physically support projections
such as balconies and roof
elements.
— John Sherrer, Historic Columbia
Foundation
‘The convenience – you can’t beat it’
By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
Cam Littlejohn can see
the Richland County court-
house from his office win-
dow, and that’s just the way
he likes it.
Littlejohn is one of sever-
al lawyers whose offices
are on lawyers’ row, a line
of short office buildings
D12 SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2011 | THE STATE | WWW.THESTATE.COM
A struggle for identity
Construction continues on The Homeless Transition Center, a
partnership between business and local government leaders.
Two stretches of the blocks are
empty; one building is boarded
Fatback, who keeps the
menu stocked with South-
ern favorites along the lines
of barbecued ribs, rib-eye
steak and Carolina chopped
barbecue.
While Main Street isn’t
known for its food, Walker
said he it has the makings of
a restaurant row, with Hen-
nessy’s down the street,
Villa Tronco around the
corner and the owner of
1734 Main St. trying to re-
cruit a restaurant similar to
the Elite Epicurean, which
closed in the late 1990s.
“We’re trying to make
(Main Street) a spot where
you can go out, get a meal,
listen to some music, walk
from restaurant to restau-
rant, visit some art sites —
make it more of a destina-
tion than it is right now,”
Walker said.
WHO WORKS HERE
across the street from the
courthouse.
Littlejohn has been an
attorney since 10 a.m. on
Nov. 11, 1975 — when he
graduated from law school.
He spent the first part of
his career working as a
prosecutor in the 11th Cir-
cuit Solicitor’s office and,
later, in the U.S. Attorney’s
office. Now, like so many
THE PUBLIC BLOCKS
FROM BL ANDING TO ELMWOOD
CHARACTER
GERRY MELENDEZ/GMELENDEZ@THESTATE.COM
up, with a notice from the fire
marshal.
Rev. Father Michael A. Platanis talks about the design and architectural elements of Holy Trinity Greek
‘The beauty is really inside the
church, like the human being’
other former prosecutors,
he has changed sides, de-
fending people in the
courtrooms where he once
prosecuted them.
Littlejohn said about 80
percent of his cases are in
the federal criminal court a
few blocks away. He some-
times walks there.
“The convenience – you
can’t beat it,” he said.
While these blocks search for
an identity, the 1600 block will be
the center of Main Street atten-
tion Wednesday as Mast General
Store, a large new retailer that
many view as a harbinger for
Main Street’s success, has its
grand opening.
But the next day, another sig-
nificant event will happen on the
north end of Main Street: The
Midlands Housing Alliance offi-
cially will take control of its new
$15 million homeless center at
the corner of Main and Elmwood
Avenue.
The homeless center’s key
feature will be its day center,
scheduled to open this summer
and designed to give the home-
less a place to go during the day
to shower, use a computer and do
their laundry. The goal is to re-
duce the number of homeless
people who wander around Main
Street during the day and use the
A JEWEL ‘UNLIKE ANY OTHER’
Orthodox Church on Main Street.
By ADAM BEAM
abeam@thestate.com
The walls of the new Holy Trin-
ity Greek Orthodox Church are
bare now, but in three years they
will tell the story of the Christian
faith.
Beginning July 1, Byzantine
iconographer George Kordis will
begin the three-year project of
painting the walls and ceiling in-
side the new $6 million church,
which serves about 300 families.
When he’s finished, it will be un-
like any church in the Midlands.
The centerpiece will be the
Christ Pantocrator (ruler of all),
painted by hand on the ceiling of
the church’s dome. Each of the
icons will be reverse perspective,
where the images in the back-
ground are larger than the fore-
ground. The goal, according to
Father Michael Platanis, is to draw
the worshipper inward.
“There’s a unity to the worship
and the structure that helps a per-
He’s seen Main Street’s
ups and downs, some of
which he hasn’t gotten over
yet.
“I sorely miss the Elite
Epicurean Restaurant,
which back in the ’80s was
the mainstay of most of the
trial lawyers who practice
in Columbia,” he said. “It
(closing) was a crushing Lawyer Cam Littlejohn holds a book written by his
blow to us attorneys.” father in his law office.
computers at the public library,
which has become the city’s de
facto day center.
Larry Arney, the alliance’s
executive director, said the facil-
ity won’t solve the problems for
every homeless person. But he
pointed out that the city’s winter
shelter in the Vista closes in
March and doesn’t open again
until the weather turns cold. The
alliance will have 214 nighttime
beds, but they won’t be available
to everyone. They’re only open to
those who enroll in the alliance’s
program.
“Emergency needs, like lodg-
ing, food, showers, all those
things are very important. … We
will provide those things,” Arney
said. “But our ultimate goal is
longer-term involvement, and
helping people actually work
through homelessness and get to
be self-reliant and in permanent
housing.”
GERRY MELENDEZ/GMELENDEZ@THESTATE.COM
son pray and find themselves close
to God,” Platanis said. “From the
outside, you almost don’t really see
the beauty of the church. It’s pretty
from the outside, but traditionally,
they make the outside of simpler
materials, and the beauty is really
inside the church, like the human
being, the kingdom of God being
within.”
For years the church faced Sum-
ter Street in a traditional brick
building. It’s well known through-
out the Midlands for its annual
Greek Festival, which attracts
thousands of people in September
to sample the Greek food. Now, it
faces Main.
Kordis will arrive July 1 to begin
the first phase of the painting, a
process that will transform the
church. But Platanis said he hopes
it will do more than that.
“That’s what a church is meant
to do, transform the people and
transform the place,” he said. “And
that’s what I believe this church is
doing in this community.”
KIM KIM FOSTER-TOBIN/KKFOSTER@THESTATE.COM