Anniversary flowers in Columbia

An anniversary in Columbia usually ends at a table, and the tables sit in three walkable pockets. The Congaree Vista — the warehouse district along Gervais, Lincoln and Lady streets — carries the heaviest dinner load, with Motor Supply Co. Bistro at 920 Gervais, Ristorante Divino a block down, Blue Marlin in the old rail depot at 1200 Lincoln, and Nonnah's on Gervais for the late dessert-and-wine half of the night. The Main Street stretch north of the State House holds the newer steakhouse-and-cocktail row, with Halls Chophouse and The Oak Table a few doors apart and Hampton Street Vineyard around the corner on Hampton. The third pocket is Five Points and Devine Street, older and more neighborhood — Saluda's upstairs on Saluda Avenue, Mr. Friendly's on Greene, Pawleys Front Porch and the Devine Street shops, with Villa Tronco on Blanding Street holding the title of the city's oldest Italian restaurant. Across the river, Terra on State Street in West Columbia draws couples who want a shorter drive from Cayce and Lexington, and Rosso at Trenholm Plaza does the same job for Forest Acres. Our grid has one studio in Columbia, Blossoms Hopcolumbiasc, at 1815 Gervais Street in 29201, which puts it inside a ten-minute drive of all three pockets and every downtown hotel desk. It is a new bench on our platform and has no customer reviews yet.

Here is the thing most people get wrong about an anniversary order: the restaurant is the worst delivery target in the city. Columbia's dining rooms are small, the Vista buildings are century-old warehouses with narrow service doors, and a bouquet arriving mid-service has nowhere to live except a host stand where it blocks the walk-in line. If you want flowers at the table, that is a conversation with the restaurant, not with a florist — call them, ask whether they will hold an arrangement and place it before your seating, and only then order with the restaurant name, the reservation name and the seating time on the delivery. Otherwise, send to one of the two targets that actually work. The home, delivered in the afternoon so the arrangement is waiting when the two of you get ready to go out, is the strongest option and by a wide margin the most common. The hotel front desk is the second, and Columbia's downtown desks are used to it: Hotel Trundle on Taylor Street, the Hilton Columbia Center on Senate Street in the Vista, the Sheraton at 1400 Main, the Columbia Marriott on Hampton Street, Aloft on Lady Street, the Graduate on Pendleton beside the USC Horseshoe, the Hampton Inn on Gervais, the Hyatt Place in the Vista and Embassy Suites Columbia Greystone off I-126. Put the guest name and the check-in date on the order; a desk cannot accept a delivery for a reservation that has not been made yet, and an arrangement sitting behind a desk for six hours in a warm lobby is not the surprise you paid for.