Popular brunch spot temporarily closed, cat cafe closed for good on State Street

Catitude Cat Cafe and 116 Espresso and Wine Bar, neighbors on West Columbia’s bustling State Street, both have closed this month — one for good, and one temporarily during an ownership change.

Wednesday was the last night under the leadership of owner-chef Ryan Whittaker for 116, a cozy tapas and wine bar by night and scrumptious brunch spot by weekend morning.

After 10 years, owner-chef Ryan Whittaker has sold the business to focus on spending time with his family.

The restaurant will be closed for the next few weeks for remodeling but will reopen with new ownership, Whittaker said.

Whittaker said he hopes his regular customers will “reach out and say what you love about 116. Tell (the new owners) about the great experiences you had with staff members you hope will come back and menu items you can’t live without.”

When he first opened 116, one week shy of a decade ago, Whittaker often would work 60-plus hours a week preparing every plate of food and sometimes washing every dish himself, he said.

Now with two young children at home — 3-year-old daughter Sage and 11-month-old son Oliver — Whittaker’s priorities have changed.

“Everybody says it: You don’t get this time back with them,” he said. “I’m ... just not one to do something halfway if I can’t be fully committed to something.”

Next door to the restaurant, Catitude Cat Cafe — the first business of its kind in the Midlands — closed earlier in March.

In a little over a year of business, the cat cafe succeeded in finding homes for more than 60 kitties.

The owners, Maria Garcia Riopedre and her fiance, Jaime Ortega, are looking for a new location for their business, they said in a recent Facebook post. They have set up an online fundraising page hoping to raise $30,000 to help reopen the business.

The State Street corridor of West Columbia and Cayce is an up-and-coming business, residential and artistic hotspot.

The long-awaited (and sometimes criticized) Brookland development at the corner of State and Meeting streets, which includes apartments and future restaurant business spaces, is nearing completion. A public art park and artisans’ market is in the works behind the strip of businesses along State Street, and a recreational park is planned near the riverfront entrance. And a new brewery plans to open in an old jailhouse just blocks away.