BY CHRIS TRAINOR

Welcome back to the Restaurant Roundup, an occasional series where we take a look at news bits and items of interest in the food and restaurant scene in Columbia and across the Midlands. This week’s entry includes a popular coffee shop opening a new outpost in the Richland Library, a well-known pizza chain debuting near northeast Columbia, and the coming closure of a frozen snoball spot in nearby Elgin.

Curiosity Coffee opens library cafe

Curiosity Coffee Bar, which has long had a busy location at 2327 Main Street in Columbia, is now operating an additional spot in the cafe space at Richland Library’s main branch at 1431 Assembly Street.

“It is meaningful not just to activate the cafe space, but to be able to collaborate with a community-centered partner,” Richland Library director of library experience Sarah Seegars said in a release. “They’re already bringing a lot of joy to Main, and we’re excited to work together on programming aligning with the library’s mission!”

The menu at the Curiosity library location includes hot coffee, espresso, cold brew nitro coffee, teas, hot chocolate, breakfast sandwiches and more.

The library notes in its release that Curiosity is featuring specialty coffees from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia throughout May in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

More ‘pizza, pizza’ in northeast Columbia

A well-known pizza chain will celebrate its opening at a new shopping center near northeast Columbia.

Little Caesars, which has more than 4,000 locations across the U.S., will have the grand opening of its new store at 185 Earth Road on Saturday, May 3. That’s in the new Market at Spears Creek complex at the corner of Earth and Spears Creek Church roads. The shopping center is anchored by a Publix grocery store, which opened on April 30.

The May 3 grand opening for Little Caesars will begin at 10 a.m., the company said in a release, and the first 100 people in line will be rewarded with free pizza for a year. (That’s one free pizza per week for 52 weeks, the release noted.)

The grand opening celebration will also include prize wheel giveaways, a DJ spinning tunes and an appearance from Little Caesar, the pizza brand’s iconic mascot.

Elgin to bid farewell to snoball spot

A Pelican’s SnoBalls location plans to close later this month.

The Pelican’s at 2291 Highway 1 South in Elgin announced in a Thursday

Facebook post that it will be closing its doors May 18 due to an “unresolved dispute” with its landlord. The Elgin location has been open for seven years.

“We are deeply saddened by the closing of our Elgin location, but incredibly grateful for all the memories, smiles and support you’ve given us over the past seven years,” Pelican’s said in the social media post.

The post noted that Pelican’s will still be appearing at events and doing pop-up stops at locations around the Elgin and Lugoff areas. The social media post also said that the Pelican’s location in northeast Columbia remains open, and will soon expand its menu to include soft-serve and scooped ice cream.

The northeast Columbia Pelican’s location is at 202 Graces Way.