A long-running Midlands restaurant known for country cooking has closed after 47 years
A Midlands restaurant known for its Southern country cooking has closed after nearly a half-century.
Compton’s Kitchen, located at 1118 B Ave. in the Triangle City area of West Columbia, has closed its doors, according to a message on the restaurant’s website.
“We are sorry to announce that the RESTAURANT IS CLOSED!” the banner message on the Compton’s website said on Wednesday morning. It’s not clear how long the restaurant has been closed, but social media messages about the closure from Midlands residents began to pop up earlier this month.
A call to the restaurant Wednesday morning went unanswered.
Compton’s Kitchen originally opened in November 1977 at the corner of Platt Springs Road and Charleston Highway, per a 2022 profile of Columbia-area country cooking joints from The State reporter Jeff Wilkinson. The restaurant later moved to Sunset Boulevard and finally landed in its B Avenue location in the mid-1980s.
The restaurant was known through the years for its Southern food and meat-and-three lunches, with items such as collard greens, macaroni and cheese, chicken fried steak and gravy, fried okra and more being favorites through the years.
The Compton’s news is just the latest in what has been a series of restaurant closures in the Midlands featuring eateries that had been open for decades.
For instance, Jin Jin Chinese Restaurant, which had been located at 469 Sunset Blvd. in West Columbia for 29 years, bid farewell in early December. “We want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support, loyalty and companionship throughout these cherished years,” Jin Jin said in a parting Facebook post.
Al’s Upstairs, a West Columbia Italian restaurant with views over the Congaree River, closed its doors in late December after a 44-year run.
Yamato, a Japanese steakhouse that had a presence in Columbia for 49 years, closed its restaurant at 360 Columbiana Drive in January.
And Rockaway Athletic Club, the Rosewood Drive tavern known for its pimento cheeseburgers and polar-cold beer, shut its doors in January after a 42-year run.
