Five Points site that’s been home to numerous college bars could soon get a new life
A longtime Five Points bar site could get a new life as an Asian restaurant called Chicken Boom and Luna Kitchen.
The shotgun property at 724 Harden St. has housed a number of college-centric establishments over the years, most recently the Horseshoe bar.
Perhaps most infamously, it was also the site of the former Jungle Jim’s bar, the last place Dail Dinwiddie was seen before her 1992 suspected kidnapping. When it was Jungle Jim’s, there was also a Chinese restaurant attached to the property.
The Horseshoe closed in 2019 amid a rash of bar closings led by nearby resident and state Sen. Dick Harpootlian. That period saw at least half a dozen college bars close, in part because of concerns they were serving underage patrons, and in part because of complaints from older neighbors.
The Horseshoe property has sat dilapidated and unused since. Currently, at least two pigeons have made a home in the broken overhead Horseshoe bar sign.
But restaurateur Yu Sing Tam is hoping to revive the venue by putting an Asian restaurant in the location, according to an application to the city of Columbia’s Board of Zoning Appeals.
A banner with the name “Chicken Boom and Luna Kitchen” is already on the back end of the property, and interior work is underway inside.
The restaurant is hoping to serve alcohol until 2 a.m., in addition to serving foods such as chicken lettuce wraps, Laksa noodles, fried rice and more, seven days a week, according to a menu included with the application.
Efforts to reach Tam were not successful as of the time of publication. It is unclear whether the applicant is the same Yu Sing Tam who operated Jungle Jim’s bar and who has been fined in the past for serving underage patrons, according to the South Carolina Administrative Law Court.
In his zoning application for Chicken Boom and Luna Kitchen, Tam wrote that Five Points has lost a lot of college bars in recent years and that this restaurant will serve alcohol to fill a gap.
The floor plan for the eatery shows room for nearly two dozen tables filling the entire building. In the past, the building has hosted both a bar and a Chinese restaurant, but according to the city application this business would strictly be a restaurant that also serves alcohol.
The Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals will consider Tam’s application at a meeting Thursday.
