A new restaurant is planned for part of Columbia’s BullStreet District. What we know
In coming weeks, the University of South Carolina is slated to break ground on its new medical school campus at Columbia’s BullStreet District.
Now it appears that a new restaurant will come to the district as part of those plans.
Rising Roll Gourmet Cafe, which has locations across the South, will open a location at BullStreet alongside the university’s coming $300 million health sciences campus, according to a release from the district. Officials said, once open, the cafe would serve students, faculty and staff at the medical school, as well as the broader community.
USC’s new school of medicine is set to break ground at BullStreet later this month and is slated to be completed by August 2027, the release noted. The medical school campus will include modern classrooms, advanced clinical simulation spaces, an ultrasound lab, research labs, along with the Rising Roll cafe.
Rising Roll is coming to the project as part of USC’s vendor services contract with Aramark. Rising Roll has locations in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Virginia and Texas, many of which are part of universities. The cafe’s menu features a host of gourmet sandwiches, salads, soups, grain bowls, wraps, desserts and more.
“We’re excited about the addition of Rising Roll Gourmet Cafe to USC’s Health Science Campus in the BullStreet District,” Hughes Development CEO Robert Hughes said in a statement. “Rising Roll is a vibrant, community-minded company that has carved out its own unique niche for quality food and service.”
Hughes Development and the city of Columbia have, in the last decade, been in the midst of overhauling the sprawling, 181-acre former State Mental Hospital campus in Columbia into the multi-use BullStreet District.
The site is home to hundreds of apartments and residences, with more under construction, as well as the Columbia Fireflies baseball team, a Starbucks, an REI outdoor store, a Publico restaurant, the Iron Hill Brewery, and a host of professional offices, among other uses.
And recently, storefront business and retail announcements have been picking up at BullStreet. Fitness studio Pvolve has opened a location there and growing seafood restaurant chain Shuckin’ Shack is developing a location in the district. Popular Greenville coffee company Methodical also has announced a location in BullStreet. Additionally, high-end salon Image Studios recently opened its doors in the district. And Coastal Crust Wood-fired Pizza has announced it will open a restaurant there in 2025, as part of a community lawn project near the WestLawn building.
Tupelo Honey, the well known Southern restaurant chain, is set to open a location at BullStreet in February.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 9:57 AM.
