I got a brother in the area who wants me to come down for the long weekend. I plan on hopping a bus and train down (which I enjoy doing almost as much as I love bitching about it), and that should give me a decent passing view of the Carolinas. Columbia’s a new place, and it’s not known for tourist draw like New Orleans or even Philly or the District (basic recon like LonelyPlanet is useless), but allegedly it is one of America’s most livable cities. There’s got to be something worthwhile down there. What’s it like? What to expect? How’s the public transportation system? Any good restaurants/bars?
How old are you? There are a ton of bars. The college scene has historically been in the “Five Points” area whereas young professional types tend to gravitate towards the ‘Vista’ area.
Perhaps it’s changed. I lived in Columbia for 5 months for work purposes about 20 years ago and I would never have called it “livable” or “a city”.
Well, USC is back in. We natives like it better in the summer before the students infest.
It’s a college town, a government town, and a military town. What specifically do you want to see? Five Points is full of college bars, the Vista is college/grownup depending on where you go. The zoo was world-class when I was a kid, and then went through some iffy years but is quite nice now. The state museum is nice, the art museum is small but well done IMHO. (Caveat, I worked there for a year, but they treated me like shit, so I’m not biased towards it.) It’s a city that’s always trying to reinvent itself and sometimes succeeding a bit.
Public transportation, on the other hand, is to laugh. Seriously. There’s a bus system, but good luck trying to figure it out from walking down to a stop like you can in every other city in the world. It’s almost accurate to say there is no public transportation.
See the zoo, then go out to 5 Points and have a few drinks. Then go see the USC campus. I didn’t google the GameCocks schedule, but catch a game if you can. Then the next morning, go to Ft Jackson, you may see a Doper or two in Basic Training.
If all else fails, go to the BBQ joint owned by the racist. Good BBQ, bad beliefs.
SSG Schwartz
Don’t believe him. It’s shitty barbecue.
What do you think of Hammy’s in Camden, SC? I was rather taken with the whole crock-potted ribs in mustard sauce thing, but my local tour guide/color commentator ( a friend who grew up in Camden ) said the rumour had always been that the owner was a former ( current? ) KKK leader of some sort ( Grand Dragon, Medium-sized Dragon, Komodo Dragon or some such ).
My brother’s actually stationed in Ft. Jackson. He’s been there long enough to know better but still doesn’t know jack about the city.
I’ve seen a couple posts now recommending the zoo. I like to check out zoos in a lot of cities I go to, so this I’ll have to check out.
BBQ has me intrigued.
You’d think a city as old as Columbia they would be able to have a decent public transportation system. Bummer.
Never been there. I’ll ask around.
Well, they HAD a public transportation system when it was hitched up to a horse. Just not, you know, now. Would you be staying out by the Fort? That’s one place it’s probably actually fairly easy to get to by bus - I can dig up a schedule and take a look for you. The buses run really infrequently, though, and they don’t generally go anywhere you want. And there’s nowhere to sit while you wait for them, and certainly nowhere to get out of the weather.
It’s also not a very taxi-ish town, either. Cars all the way. (Soldiers do get cab discounts - I think that’s pretty much why the cabs we do have exist.) Of course, nowhere you want to go to has any parking.
The city is, of course, unwililng to invest in public transportation. They knocked down the bill that would have funded the bus system a few weeks ago, too, so now nobody knows how long the crappy buses we have are even going to last - I think it’s all sort of in limbo now, but I quit reading about it because it’s bad for my blood pressure. They say “the people don’t want to spend for it in this economy”, when it’s obvious that what the people need in this economy is a fucking bus system that works. Drives me up a wall.
There’s been all this migration out to the northeast end of town, and all those people drive their giant SUVs in to work every day. I have a dream, my brothers, where there’s a great big parking deck out at Village at Sandhills, and also a huge sign that says “Kiss and Ride”, like they have up north. So maybe those dumb-ass McMansion people would actually get rid of a car, because you can just drop your husband off, smack him on the cheek (with your lips or the back of your hand, whatever) and he gets on the bus and you go back home and watch HGTV all day. It will never happen.
The museum and zoo are pretty decent, given the size of the town. Also worth a drive-by is the mural Tunnel Vision on the side of the “Agfirst” bank downtown.
Unfortunately, you’re a little late to dine at Bert’s Grill, as it closed a couple of years ago. They touted themselves as “The SC King of Soul Food.” Had the best pig tails, pig ears, and pig just-about-everything-else-except-the-oink in town. So far as other restaurants, well, if you like Mexican or Chinese, you’re covered. New city ordinances require one or the other on each new street.
If you care much for Pizza, I’d send you toward Pizza Man on Rosewood or Labrasca’s near the fort.
Right beside Labrasca’s there’s a vacant restaurant that previously offered Chinese Sole Food. I say “sole” because every time I went in there, I was the sole customer. Don’t know what might have been going on there–probably something sinister and inscrutable.
One place that everyone (who’s eaten there) raves about is the “Blue Cactus,” a Korean/Cuban restaurant. They pride themselves on their attention to detail and perfection. That is, they’re admittedly slow, and they want you to know that in advance. Best bet is to place your order, walk a few steps to the “Salty Nut” for a brewsky, then return in about a half hour to get your order.
I’m not much of a taster, so other than being able to tell whether BBQ is ketchup-based, mustard-based, or vinegar/pepper-based, it all tastes pretty much the same to me.
If you’d like a little adventure, ride down Read St or House St at 2:00 AM or so–slowly. Even better, walk.
I always assumed that Chinese restaurant was a drug front or something. Ate there a couple times and it was actually pretty good - but we were always alone. Now it’s a Mexican restaurant.
Jackson Boulevard, at the back Fort gate, has some of my favorite restaurants in town. In addition to Labrasca’s mentioned above (a neighborhood favorite - I and everybody else started eating there as a fetus) there’s Saky’s, which is a fantastic Japanese restaurant right by the gate, and Julia’s, which is an awesome German place only open Wednesday through Saturday and cash only. None of these places are the kind of restaurant you’d probably dare go into unless somebody told you it was good, though - Saky’s is in kind of a trailer arrangement, and the other two look like real dives. You wouldn’t even find Julia’s if you weren’t looking for it - it’s at the back of this weird mini-mall thing which if you’re leaving the fort is right after Labrasca’s and before the extinct grocery store. Real local places, all.