Chocolate Nirvana, The Happy Cooker come together

Between their two shops along Columbia’s Richland and Devine streets, the owners of Chocolate Nirvana and The Happy Cooker had about a dozen tables for seating customers.

With their joint move to 4405 Fort Jackson Blvd., near Whole Foods, they have increased their seating to 80 – and even that might not be enough on some days.

“They were really hungry over here for something like this,” owner Phil Waddell said on a recent weekday, as the lunch crowd swelled, causing some customers to wait for up to half an hour for a table.

Waddell and general manager Jon Rogers brought the bakery and cafe businesses – longtime Columbia staples – together under one roof about two weeks ago. They moved the businesses – along with their catering company, The Box Lunch Co. – into the building that previously had housed The Diner and Sammiches.

The new shop – Chocolate Nirvana Bakery & Cafe – is in an area that has been bursting with growth since the opening of Columbia’s first Whole Foods Market and a variety of other shops more than two years ago. Construction also is poised to begin on another nearby shopping center, once home to a now-shuttered Kmart, that will bring in several national retailers.

Rogers said the businesses would have opened at the site nearly three years ago if not for bad timing.

They looked at the Fort Jackson Boulevard building just as The Diner signed a lease there in 2011. When that restaurant closed, Rogers moved on the building again, only to find out Sammiches had leased it. So when he heard that business had closed, he rushed to get a contract signed earlier this year.

“We looked at the building and knew it was going to be the perfect fit for us,” Rogers said.

The kitchen is big enough to bring in the catering business. And the seating was divided so that it still had an intimate feel. One dining room holds 50, the other, 30. The site also is near the interstate so it would be convenient for catering customers. And it was near their core customer lunch base.

Chocolate Nirvana’s menu has remained consistent. The cafe menu has grown by about a half-dozen items, including a Carolina Cobb salad, a Bourbon pork sandwich and a crab cake sandwich. The typical lunch ticket is about $10.

A display case by the cash register holds tempting cakes and cupcakes, piled high with thick icing. Perhaps as a result, dessert sales have boomed since the move, the men said.

This story was originally published October 16, 2014 at 10:16 PM with the headline "Chocolate Nirvana, The Happy Cooker come together."