Tips for CFB trip to Columbia, S.C.

My college buddies and I will be making our annual College Football Trip next weekend (Oct. 8th) to Columbia for South Carolina-Kentucky. None of us have been to South Carolina for a game and would love to get some tips.

Some context: 1) There will be eight of us, all in our early 40s 2) We're staying at the Spring Hill Suites in The Vista, right off Gervais St. 3) It's an early kickoff, 12:21 ET

Any suggestions for places to eat/drink, particularly Friday night and Saturday late afternoon/evening, when we'll also want to watch other football games, especially (for me) LSU-Florida?

Tailgating tips? I think we are going to walk to the Colonial Center from our hotel and take a shuttle bus to the stadium from there, so we won't have cars or parking spots. Can we bring a cheap cooler on the bus and just have some pops in the Williams-Brice parking lot while soaking up the scene?

Any sights we should see?

Thanks in advance.

 

I'd stick to restaurants and bars for eating and drinking. I don't want ot have to cook while I'm on vacay

 

Take the shuttle. Parking around the stadium is OK getting in, but getting out can take forever, like well over an hour, if the game goes down to the wire.

 

Five Points is where it's at. I got punched in the face there once by a bouncer because a guy I was with grabbed a waitress' ass. Wish I would have done it since I took the punishment.

 

Why didn't you do it?

 

Skippy, if you wanna be funny, try being funny.

 

Bump.

Any advice, particularly on bars/restaurants? Good places to watch a game, such as Phillies/Cards Friday night and LSU/Florida on Saturday?

 

There's a place, I think it's a chain, called Gillian's that they have in Columbia... Nothing special, but probably a good place to see a game...

 

Isn't there a neat piano bar in columbia? I ate at the blue marlin when I was there years ago. It was good. On parking, park early once you get on the fairgrounds unless you want to pay asb arm and a leg. Once you pass the stadium its going to be expensive and there is no turning around. Its one way in one way out on game day. I went to an incubus concert in the park in 2002 so didn't catch any bars our clubs.

 

Village Idiot for pizza and Harper's for dinner/game watching

 

Is the Bojangles still across the street from Williams-Brice? Best damn fried chicken I've ever had at a chain, and that includes -- with all apologies to Wright Thompson -- Popeye's.

But if you're prone to the drizzleshits, it's probably wise to skip it.

 

Yeah, be sure to leave for the game early. Williams-Brice Stadium is located at the far end of a fairgrounds complex, so all traffic flows in from the same direction. And if you've got parking in an assigned lot and you over-shoot it, you're pretty well screwed.