What's Inside the Five Points and Rosewood Buildings Columbia Still Calls by Old Names

"We found the perfect building," Steve Cook told The State this fall, talking about Slip 53, the new seafood restaurant at 732 Saluda Ave. Most of Columbia still knows that building as Pecknel Music. The store was there for about half a century.

His line could stand for a lot of what's new in Five Points and Rosewood this year. The headline openings of 2026 here are mostly not new buildings. They're new operators in buildings people already use to give directions, and several of them have kept some of the old name or menu on purpose. When you say "the old Rockaway's" or "where New Brookland was," you're pointing at something the new tenants have built into their plans.

Here's the address-by-address version.

632 Harden St. kept its marquee and made it the point

The building at 632 Harden St. has changed hands the most. It was home to Cotton Gin, then to New Brookland Tavern. New Brookland had been a full-time music club since at least 1998 and moved to Five Points from West Columbia in December 2023, according to the Post and Courier's Free Times. In March 2026 the club announced it would leave the Harden Street space at the end of May. It posted, "We have a plan, still early to say exactly what it is."

The building sat empty for about eleven weeks. 5 Points Social held its grand opening on Aug. 15. Owner Ryan Ferguson and business partner Jeff O'Hara renovated the 1930s building into three separate levels:

• Station 90, downstairs, a family-friendly sports bar
• Marquee Lounge, in the back, aimed at an older crowd
• Sandstorm Live, upstairs, for live entertainment

The detail that shows the pattern best is the sign. The Post and Courier reported that Ferguson plans to use the building's well-known marquee as a recruiting tool for University of South Carolina athletics. The new owners didn't hide the old facade. They named a whole level after it and gave it a new job.

2719 Rosewood Dr. waited longest, and the new menu nods to the old one

At the Rockaway site, the gap was much longer. Rockaway Athletic Club served pimento cheeseburgers on Rosewood Drive for more than four decades. It closed Jan. 18, 2024, three days earlier than staff expected, The State reported. The last night included a final trivia night, and the kitchen had run out of supplies, according to the Free Times. The closing came after Cason Development Group and Baker Commercial Properties bought the property. Cason said at the time that the goal was to put another restaurant there.

That took about two and a half years. Bang Back Pinball Lounge soft-opened Bang Back Bar and Grill at 2719 Rosewood Dr. on Aug. 18, 2026. It's the business's second Columbia location. It has custom stained glass windows with a pinball theme, vintage machines, craft cocktails, and a fuller sit-down menu than the original. The menu includes a pimento cheese burger that the Post and Courier described as honoring the space's history.

Owner Fred Richardson confirmed that the original Bang Back lounge in Five Points is staying open. So the two neighborhoods now share a business as well as a burger tradition. You can play pinball near the Five Points fountain and then eat a pimento cheese burger in the old Rockaway's dining room under the same name.

732 Saluda Ave. had the oldest previous tenant and the longest planning

The Pecknel Music building has the longest history of the three. The music retailer was in the 732 Saluda space for about 51 years. In 2019 it announced a move to Lexington, citing an expiring lease and the chance at a more practical store layout, The State reported at the time.

Slip 53 was first announced in December 2025. It comes from The Foundry Group, a growing South Carolina hospitality company. Executive vice president Steve Cook is a longtime Columbia restaurateur. He told The State that he and Casey Peissel, owner of Backstreets Grill, had talked about the idea for several years before the Saluda Avenue building came together. "If we would have done this and everything would have fallen in place three years ago, I don't think it would have been as special of a restaurant as it is now," Cook said.

The menu calls the place a "coastal kitchen and raw bar." It includes raw oysters, peel-and-eat shrimp, shrimp po' boys, clam chowder, pan-seared salmon and lobster ravioli. During the soft opening, The State reported hours of 4 to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, based on a Google listing. Slip 53's own site advertises weekend lunch, so check the current hours before you go.

You don't need to plan far ahead. Slip 53 takes reservations on Resy, but Cook was clear about walk-ins. "We will never be reservation-only," he told The State. "Even if online reservations are booked, we hold space for walk-ins."

3003 Rosewood Dr. depends on its building in the other direction

The three openings above share one thing. Each went into a building someone was willing to buy, renovate or wait on. Rosewood Dairy Bar shows what happens when the building itself becomes the problem.

WLTX reported that the restaurant at 3003 Rosewood Dr. plans to close after 84 years. Its social media announcement listed three reasons: rising product costs, a lack of steady business, and the rented building "being in disrepair." The owners expect to close by the end of November and called that timeline tentative.

If you want one more visit, go soon. According to WIS, the business has stopped ordering new product and will sell what's left for as long as it lasts. The owners have asked customers to keep following their social media. They're working toward a possible Rosewood Dairy Bar food truck "in the near future." If the truck happens, the name will keep going without the building. That's the reverse of what happened at the old Rockaway's, farther up Rosewood Drive at 2719.

The same approach a few miles north, at BullStreet

The pattern isn't limited to Five Points and Rosewood. Coastal Crust, the Charleston pizzeria founded in 2013, opened its first Midlands location in BullStreet's historic Williams Building this August. WIS reported on July 30 that the restaurant would open the following Tuesday at 2158 Pickens St. The Post and Courier described the building as mostly demolished and rebuilt around a wood-fired oven. Owner Brian Piesner called the project uniquely challenging. Even where little of the original structure stayed, the operator chose to keep the historic name and location.

Two November dates to plan around

With three of these buildings open and one counting down, November gives you two reasons to walk Five Points:

1. JerryFest, Sunday, Nov. 8, noon to 8 p.m., on the Five Points calendar.
2. NEON Joy, Friday, Nov. 20, 6 to 9 p.m. This is the Five Points Association's holiday celebration, with a holiday laser show and seasonal activities.

An evening at NEON Joy can easily start with oysters at Slip 53 on Saluda and finish under the marquee at 632 Harden. On the way, you'll pass buildings Columbia has called by other names for decades. If you're headed to Rosewood that week, check the Dairy Bar's social media first, since November is its tentative last month.

Your own house sits on an address with history too, and its value depends partly on how the blocks around it keep changing. When you want to know what your Columbia-area home is worth today, MaryJo Burd and The Red Rose Group will walk you through the numbers clearly. Start by requesting your instant home valuation.