Driving School in Forest Acres Columbia, SC

FOREST ACRES — A national salad chain is soon to open its only South Carolina store in a bustling shopping center near Columbia.

Chopt Creative Salad Co. will open a new restaurant March 25 in in Suite 16 of Trenholm Plaza at 4840 Forest Drive. The addition was first reported last August by the City of Forest Acres.

The salad spot will open on the north side of Trenholm Plaza, near Tazza Kitchen and 16 Handles frozen yogurt shop.

Chopt announced its grand opening event and giveaway on Facebook, which will be held at the new store on March 25 from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The first 50 customers to place an order, in-store or on the Chopt app, will receive a free branded tote bag, it said on Facebook.

And guests who sign up for the Chopt rewards program and also place an order can spin a prize wheel for a chance to win prizes including Chopt merchandise, a free salad and a $20 gift card. The prize wheel is available from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on opening day while supplies last, the restaurant said online.

The new Forest Acres location features the “efficient and sustainable Chopt 4.0 store design,” allowing customers to order on an in-store kiosk or order ahead for pickup on their website and app.

“Your lunch plans just got a major upgrade,” the city said in its Instagram post.

While it might be an unfamiliar name to Midlands residents, Chopt was founded in 2001 in New York City and has locations across the east coast.

The chain’s mission is to “make healthy eating exciting for all people” and “create a menu that celebrates flavors from around the world,” the company says on its website. It aims for a “better process, start to finish” by buying local produce and partnering with farmers, it says.

Chopt is not to be confused with Verde, another salad chain that closed in the Plaza in 2024. The new spot will take over the home of a former Chipotle at the end cap of the Plaza overlooking Forest Drive, the city said on Instagram.

The Forest Acres location is the only Chopt store in the state, according to its store locator. It has four existing locations in the Charlotte area.

Trenholm Plaza features a Publix, a Fresh Market, a Chicken Salad Chick, a J. Crew Factory store and much more. About 28,000 cars per day travel down Forest Drive per day, according to 2024 South Carolina Department of Transportation data.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A new 80-unit affordable housing community near Forest Acres is now open, as Columbia works to address a growing demand for affordable housing across the city.

Addison Pointe offers one- to three-bedroom units and targets working families whose income falls within 20 to 60 percent of the area median income — a category that includes teachers, firefighters, and health care workers. The $20 million project was funded through a combination of federal, state, and local sources.

Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said the city will need 1,600 affordable housing units over the next decade to keep up with demand. He said Addison Pointe is a step toward filling that gap.

“Whatever we can do to help move these types of projects forward are so key to our community,” Rickenmann said.

Matt McColl with SC Housing said the multi-source funding model is critical to sustaining new affordable housing options.

“It really emphasizes the fact that the need for affordable housing within the region is very important,” McColl said.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, South Carolina needs to make 92,000 more homes affordable for extremely low-income households. In Columbia, more than 5,000 families are currently on a waiting list for the Columbia Housing Authority’s voucher program.

“That means they’re looking for affordable units right now. That’s 5,000 people on a waiting list, so you see the need,” Rickenmann said.

A developer said Addison Pointe has already received more than 100 applications. Rickenmann said the development is the first of this year’s affordable housing projects and that the city’s goal is to convert 2,100 empty lots across Columbia into additional affordable housing opportunities.

“No matter how many we build, we still need more,” Rickenmann said.

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COLUMBIA — Popular Forest Acres restaurant Pasta Fresca is entering a new era after being acquired by The Foundry Group, a Columbia-based restaurant development and management company.

Steve Cook, an executive vice president at Foundry Group, said the sale happened in February and was something the group has been working on for a while as it looks to acquire iconic Columbia brands.

In October, The Foundry Group took over West Columbia’s Cafe Strudel. Cook, most known for Five Points fine dining establishment Saluda’s, said Pasta Fresca plans to have a similar transition as Cafe Strudel, with the group making minimal changes to customers’ experience.

“We bought it because we love it, and we think it's a great place, and so we won't change anything fundamentally,” Cook said.

Any initial changes will be “minor tweaks that customers are not going to notice,” Cook told Free Times.

He expects some maintenance updates and new equipment as well as some new specials from Pasta Fresca’s chef as he’s given more creative freedom.

Overall, Cook said the Foundry Group hopes to make the experience better for staff and customers — and make some updates that are now possible with the group’s wide range of experience and resources.

“I think it's that depth of experience,” Cook said. “We identified in Columbia that every other city our size has multiple restaurant groups, and nobody here does, and we thought that was a missing thing in the market, and we're happy to hopefully be filling that, and we look forward to continue to grow.”

The Foundry Group currently covers 10 brands in the Columbia area including popular spots like The Devine Cinnamon Roll Deli, Saluda’s and the newly re-branded State Pizza.

Cook’s Arroyo leaves the scene

Independently a prominent Columbia restaurateur before joining The Foundry Group, Cook helps run multiple of the restaurants now under the group’s ownership including Saluda’s, State Pizza, Ember and Slip 53 — a new oyster bar and seafood restaurant that is set to open in the former Pecknel Music Company location in Five Points.

And while never an official restaurant under The Foundry Group, Cook also ran Arroyo Tacos and Tequila, which has since closed after it struggled to “fit” into Cook’s work with the new restaurant group.

“Just thought it was better to move on from that and focus on all the other stuff we've got going on,” Cook said.

The restaurant closed its doors in September with little fanfare from the restaurant or customers. Its latest post on Facebook advertises a Bacon-Burger-Dilla and has no likes or comments as of March 19.

Cook said the space is currently up for sale and will likely transition to a new concept.

Arroyo Tacos and Tequila opened at 819 Harden Street in 2024 and served up a variety of à la carte tacos and house-infused tequilas.

FOREST ACRES – A city near downtown Columbia is moving forward with a limit on new liquor and smoke shops in one of its neighborhoods.

Forest Acres City Council passed the first reading of an ordinance amendment that would prohibit smoke or vape shops and sales of beer, wine and liquor in the Covenant Crossing area.

Residents in the city of 10,000 to downtown Columbia’s northeast told leaders they don’t want to invite more businesses to sell those products in the neighborhood because of the effect they could have on the community, City Administrator Shaun Greenwood said in January.

Covenant Crossing is a uniquely situated area of the city, the administrator added. It’s the only commercial area that is entirely surrounded by neighborhoods, and it’s home to family-centered locations such as Trenholm Park, Harmony School, The Therapy Place and an adult day care center.

The city council approved revisions added by its planning commission last month, which was concerned that the language was too strict. Their revisions seek to prevent a ban on potential businesses that align with leadership’s goals for the area but also sell alcohol, such as a grocery store, Mayor Thomas Andrews said in January.

The updated draft that passed on first reading reflects two changes.

First, an exception was added for grocery stores at least 12,000 square feet in size that sell beer and/or wine for off-premises consumption, much like the Trader Joe’s on Forest Drive. The minimum is meant to accommodate “small neighborhood grocery stores,” the city’s attorney said.

Second, an expansion of the smoke shop aspect was added, which would also prohibit shops that sell “alternative” nicotine, vape and cannabis products that might not normally qualify for classification as a “smoke shop.”

The council approved the ordinance unanimously with no additional discussion. They are expected to take up the item for second reading next month, and it will go into effect if approved.

City leaders want to preserve Covenant Crossing’s “neighborhood feel” and “create a safe space” around Trenholm Park by encouraging certain growth that’s good for families and limiting others that aren’t, Andrews said in January.

The move would amend the city’s Unified Development Ordinance approved last year, which overhauled its zoning regulations and ordinances in an effort to adapt to the city’s growth over the next couple of decades.

This effort is not unlike measures put in place for other Forest Acres districts, where certain types of businesses are not allowed under the new zoning code, Greenwood said in January.

A public hearing on the amendment will be held in April, the council decided in February.

The city council has not discussed any other areas where the ordinance might be similarly amended, leadership said. The council is trying to be targeted and focused due to the sensitivity of the Covenant Crossing area, and it’s not something they’d like to apply to the whole city, Andrews said in January.

FOREST ACRES — The “City Apart” east of Columbia just got a new Mexican restaurant.

Jimador Real — part of the El Jimador family of Mexican restaurants across the Midlands — opened at 4711 Forest Dr. in Forest Acres, according to social media posts by the restaurant and the City of Forest Acres. The restaurant began service with a soft-opening on March 2, the company posted.

The new restaurant is in a popular shopping center that is anchored by a Lowes Foods supermarket and is home to several other businesses, including an Eggs Up Grill restaurant and a CVS pharmacy.

It takes over the space formerly home to a TakoSushi restaurant that closed last October. Just a few days after the closure, Jimador Real announced it would move in, which Forest Acres called “good news for tacos and queso lovers.”

The Forest Acres location is “a new Mexican cuisine concept focused on refined presentation and a different way to experience your favorite dishes,” the company said on Facebook. It looks to be the debut of the company’s new concept.

The El Jimador chain — self-dubbed “the Midlands’ fastest growing Mexican restaurant” — has locations in Cayce, Columbia, Lexington, Irmo and elsewhere.

The opening comes as the city, home to about 10,000 people, progresses with expanding its commercial options, despite the council’s controversial proposals to limit growth and prevent certain developments near residential areas.

The area projects an 8 percent rise in retail spending from 2022 to 2027, The Post and Courier reported last November. It is progressing with an expansive redevelopment of the former Richland Mall site, poised to bring new shops and apartments.

Forest Drive’s pull as a commercial corridor is easily seen through the popular Trader Joe’s — just up the street from the new Mexican spot — where traffic from the crowded parking lot often backs up onto the road.

The shopping center hosting the new restaurant is along a busy stretch of Forest Drive, home to many restaurants, stores, apartments and more. The stretch sees traffic from about 27,300 cars per day, according to 2024 South Carolina Department of Transportation data.