Popular Columbia bar The Whig to leave longtime Main Street space amid hotel plans

For nearly two decades, residents and visitors in Columbia have been descending the stairs at the corner of Main and Gervais streets and popping into the darkened, cozy dive bar The Whig for drinks and food.

But now it looks like the bar won’t be at 1200 Main St. for much longer.

The Whig, which opened in 2005, will be leaving its longtime subterranean spot as plans are afoot for a new hotel in the more than century-old building at 1200 Main. Local developers are planning the hotel at 1200 Main, and full details on that development have not yet been released.

Phill Blair and Will Green, co-owners of The Whig, said they have been informed the bar’s lease, which runs into the fall, will not be renewed as extensive construction is expected to ramp up.

“We know that our time in that space (at 1200 Main) is limited and is coming to an end,” Blair told The State. “Knowing that definitively, that’s where we are in terms of informing our staff and informing the public.”

Green and Blair said there is not a definitive date set for when The Whig will leave its spot at 1200 Main. They are hopeful, but far from certain, that they might be able to stay through the end of the year.

“If we had an opportunity to stay there through the end of the year, to celebrate the holidays that have always been really important to us, that would be a wonderful thing,” Green said.

The owners say future plans for The Whig, including whether it might move to another location, have not been finalized, though both Green and Blair said they would be open to finding another spot, particularly if it is in downtown Columbia.

Blair said the likely considerable upcoming work for a hotel is triggering The Whig’s move from its space of 17 years.

“The scope of the project they are doing is not going to allow a business to exist there while it happens,” Blair said. “The building is well over 100 years old, and to get it to where they are trying to get it, it’s just a bigger project than where anyone can hang around.”

The building at 1200 Main St. debuted back in 1913, according to Historic Columbia, which notes it as Columbia’s first skyscraper. It was first home to Union National Bank, an entry on Historic Columbia’s website said. In more recent years, it formerly served as home to ABC Columbia. Richland County property tax records show the building was purchased in June 2022 by State Capitol Hotel LLC.

Blair and Green also are the owners of the popular WECO Bottle and Biergarten in West Columbia. That establishment is remaining open.

There are roughly 17 employees at The Whig, and ownership was set to talk with them this week about the exit from 1200 Main.

‘We’ve never been busier’

The Whig, known for its almost impossibly low-lit, underground environment and vast selection of beer, also has become a favorite for its food menu, including its Whig chicken sandwich with pimento cheese, the smoked gouda mac-and-cheese and gravy fries, among other offerings.

The bar’s owners say business at The Whig has been solid. In fact, it has been doing as well as ever, Blair said.

“You are basically trying to calculate pumping the brakes on something that is at an all-time, full-steam ahead,” Blair said. “Numerically, business-wise, we’ve never been busier.”

Green added that it has been “a strange dual existence” recently as they have tried to keep The Whig running strong, while at the same time knowing their time at 1200 Main St. is facing its end.

Blair has been associated with The Whig since 2005 and became an owner a year later, in 2006. Green started working at The Whig in 2006, when he was in grad school, and has been a fixture behind the bar for years. He became a co-owner in 2018.

During the course of the last decade-plus, Columbia’s Main Street District has become one of the hottest places in town. The section of the street north of the S.C. State House is lined with bars, restaurants and shops, with more on the way, and it’s home to the weekly Soda City Market.

But Main Street wasn’t the hot place to be back in 2005, when The Whig landed in its underground spot at the corner of Gervais and Main, across the street from the State House.

Blair jokes that the nearby space that now houses the tony Bourbon bar was “just a room full of pigeons and plywood” when The Whig first arrived, and Green noted part of the reason behind The Whig’s name is that, when it first opened, “there were a whole bunch of wig stores on Main Street, and not much else.”

In the years since, The Whig has been integral in numerous events that take place on Main, including First Thursday on Main, Arts and Draughts, the Jam Room Music Festival and more.

‘You are welcome here’

For now, it appears The Whig, which has been a rock of the Main Street hospitality scene, is entering into a time of uncertainty, even though it will likely be at its 1200 Main spot for a few more months. Even as Blair and Green consider the possibility of relocation, their fondness for the old underground place was clear in a recent talk with The State.

Green said the subterranean establishment has almost been a home away from home. He talks lovingly of days when his young daughter, Louise, and son, Max, stop by before the business opens for the day, and they can chat and spend time together as Green preps his shift.

He also stressed that The Whig — located, in a sense, at the very nexus of South Carolina, at Main and Gervais in the capital city, across from the State House — has been a place with a diverse customer base and a welcoming vibe.

“We’ve had a place that is in the heart of the city, right across from the seat of power, where we say, ‘Literally everybody is welcome. As long as you are OK with everybody being welcome, you are welcome here,’” Green said. “I think that’s at the heart of what we do.”

Blair said he’s pleased with The Whig’s arc in 17 years at 1200 Main, where it went from humble beginnings to a mainstay on the city’s bar scene. Nothing’s ever perfect, he said, but the goal has always been to make it the best experience possible.

“I’m just happy with what it became,” Blair said in his trademark gravelly voice. “It means a lot to a lot of people.”