D’s Wings in Cayce is moving. Here’s when. Plus, who gets all of those dollar bills?
Saturday is the last day to eat at the D’s Wings restaurant in Cayce that has been there for more than 30 years. Owner Billy Rentz hopes to open the new location June 1 at 415 Meeting St. in West Columbia.
Rentz is planning an opening night event that will include the staff donating what he estimates will be around $5,000 of dollar bills that were hung on the walls at D’s Wings to Camp Kemo.
“Oh we’re not quite done counting,” said Rentz. “We’ve strapped about $2,000 worth and based on that, we believe we have about $3,000 more to strap.”
The last time Rentz and the staff at D’s Wings donated all of the dollar bills on the walls was in 2005. In the new restaurant, Rentz plans to create a “Camp Kemo Wall of Hope” out of repurposed barn doors from the new building. He hopes to keep the dollar trend going and to donate the money each year to the charity for kids with cancer.
The location is only .3 miles away from the Cayce site, and the newly renovated building will sit between the new Savage Craft Ale Works and the West Columbia Interactive Art Park in the River District.
D’s will not stray from its tested and true menu of wings, burgers and ribs, but it will have freshly designed menus. The restaurant will have almost the exact same seating space as its current location, but Rentz said the new building will be less cramped on packed nights.
In May 2020, Rentz found out that his lease at the Parkland Plaza shopping center would not be renewed. He described the news that he’d have to move as a “gut punch” at the time since D’s Wings has been at the location since 1989.
“At first it didn’t feel like it, but this is just a building, you know.” said Rentz.
Rentz moved quickly to start construction on the new location last May, a building that was vacant for about 30 years and was formerly a mechanic’s shop, he said.
“I feel excited now. My emotions have run the gamut for the last year from sadness to melancholy to where I am now — I’m just excited, I’m ready to go,” Rentz said.
