Longstanding Columbia dance club to close. Here’s when and what will replace it
The Woody on Main, a dance club started by local radio disc jockey Woody Windham and his daughters, will close down at the end of October, the Windham family announced.
“We have loved being part of so many lives, events and parties over the last 5 years on Main Street,” the family wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday.
Halloween will be the last day of business for the downtown bar, at 1649 Main St., a little over a year after Windham died at 83. Windham, who spent decades as a radio host, opened the bar in the Vista originally in 2011 and later moved it to Main Street in 2020. The family hopes to find a new location, similar to its move from the Vista to Main Street, but hasn’t settled on a place yet, they said in the post.
“Losing our father last year really hurt our family, but we refuse to give up on his legacy and plan to move to a new location, where we can focus on being a restaurant that allows dancing, instead of a dance club that serves food,” the Windhams shared on social media.
Since Woody Windham’s death in April of last year, his daughters have run the dance club. In a Facebook post Wednesday, they announced the bar would close, citing the impact of opening during the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of liquor liability insurance across the state.
The Woody is one of the handful of bars in South Carolina to point to the rising cost of insurance for selling liquor as a reason for closure. Restaurant and bar owners have felt the financial pinch of ballooning insurance over the last few years, after a state law passed in 2017 that required a $1 million insurance policy to sell beer, wine or liquor led a number of insurers to leave the market. With fewer companies offering the insurance, prices have skyrocketed.
“South Carolina doesn’t have nightclubs or bars, we only have restaurants and until that changes, many more smaller family run businesses will close until all we have left are Applebees and other similar corporations,” the post read.
Towards the end of the last state legislative session, lawmakers came to a deal meant to ease the insurance burden on restaurants and bars, but the legislation, which doesn’t go into effect until the beginning of next year, has been met with mixed reviews from restaurateurs.
Hendrix, an upscale restaurant and rooftop bar, sits atop the building that houses The Woody. Hendrix plans to open a pizzeria in the space, co-owner Jon Sears confirmed to The State. The rooftop bar already serves pizzas on Thursday nights and will offer them in the Woody’s space after it closes in October.
“We’re not going to change much, it’s going to be good pizza and hopefully have a bit of a neighborhood bar feel,” Sears said. The hope is to have the restaurant open at the beginning of December.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 10:20 AM.
