Openings, a hurricane + football
September was an interesting month for Columbia – and S.C. as a whole – and even just for Main St.

Not only did we celebrate the first official day of fall, but we also celebrated the start of Gamecock Football season (with our first game at home vs. Coastal Carolina on Labor Day weekend), dealt with a hurricane pummeling through the Carolinas (which shut our city down for several days in preparation), read about Main Street’s game of musical businesses, and got to announce several business openings + reopenings throughout the Midlands.

So – in case you were hunkered down, only checking your hurricane tracker most of the month – here’s a look back at our top 5 stories in September.

Swing Suite announced its opening date [283 likes, 179 comments, 104 shares]

The Venue on Main’s Topgolf Swing Suite announced they’ll open Friday, Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. – a.k.a tonight. They only have five suites (each holding 8 people), so we suggest you tell the boss you need to head out early today. 😉 Along with that news came the announcement of Michael’s Cafe popping up in a temporary location + Shoppes on Main permanently relocating to 1604 Main St. – all to accommodate Swing Suite’s entrance on a Main St.

Treasure Island indoor Flea Market to open in West Columbia [237 likes, 103 comments, 134 shares]

Soda Citizens love a good bargain find, so it’s no surprise the announcement of indoor (and air-conditioned) Treasure Island Flea Market opening in West Columbia at 2702 Emanuel Church Rd. was one of our most popular posts of the month. Their grand opening is tomorrow, Sept. 29 – featuring 80+ vendors, food trucks, activities for kids and more.

#TBT: 10 of Columbia’s longest-standing restaurants [4,690 website views]

Mike Wine-guy, the local citizen journalist behind all those viral Facebook interviews, wrote a #Voices piece for us on 10 of the oldest Columbia restaurants that are still around today – with insider info from the owners of restaurants like Mr. Friendly's, Yesterday’s + Baan Sawan.

Your guide for staying in-the-know about Florence [2,701 website views]

Hurricane Florence kept flip-flopping on her predicted path, leaving many of us in Columbia not sure of when and how to prepare, or how to help those affected. So we put together a comprehensive guide to help everyone out in a time of need.

White Mule will reopen in Five Points [830 likes, 71 comments]

Main Street District wasn’t the only neighborhood announcing openings this month. White Mule – an old-school Columbia music pub which shut down ~7 years ago underground at 1530 Main St. – announced they’ll re-open in Five Points within the former space of Speakeasy at 711 Saluda Ave. The rock club + listening room officially opened for biz yesterday, Sept. 27.

Even though we celebrated the first day of Fall last week, I’m still waiting on fall temperatures to actually arrive. In the meantime, I’ll just fake it by eating and drinking everything pumpkin I can find Cola.

And here’s a list of #MustDo events in October + throughout the remainder of Fall.

–Sam