Harvest Week is underway at Motor Supply Company Bistro. Having begun on Tuesday, this week is a celebration of the local farms the restaurant receives some of its ingredients from throughout the year.
Motor Supply's Harvest Week is special in that the menu stays consistent for the entirety of the week. Typically, the restaurant changes its menu daily, but this week, Executive Chef Wesley Fulmer wants to approach things differently.
"Let's calm down. Let's do it right. We're gonna really really nail this," Fulmer said in regards to the change in pace that has to occur for Harvest Week.
All menu items are listed with the name of the farms from which they originated. The list includes Carolina Heritage Farms, Watsonia Farms, West Ridge Farms and many more. The menu is planned with about three months of conceptualization and two weeks of food prep.
The food is something you would expect to find on a high-end menu but has an approachable, understandable menu description. For instance, the meal I ordered was a bone-in pork chop with grits, peaches, mushrooms, greens and blackberry mustard. The chef could have written the menu to read "crown of pork with Carolina gold rice puree, bruleed peaches and mushroom ragu, topped with a blackberry gastrique." Instead, Fulmer seeks to simplify the descriptions. To Fulmer, it's superfluous to make fine dining something that requires a dictionary to comprehend. His desire is to have anyone come to his restaurant and fall in love with the description of the food on the menu rather than get confused by all the fancy wording that could be used.
"I want to cook for people who eat around here," Fulmer said. "I don't want anybody to be intimidated when they come here to eat."
The atmosphere of Motor Supply Company Bistro is rustic, almost home-like, and as you sit and begin your conversation, the room begins to seem as though you are at a big family dinner. People are engaging and connecting. The staff is incredibly kind and helpful. Our server even went back to the kitchen to make sure there weren't any of our allergens in the food that she was not aware of or had forgotten.
Plenty of artwork hung on the walls of the restaurant, all of which was provided by local curator Anastasia Chernoff.
For those who venture out to eat looking for a good atmosphere to go with their delicious meals, Motor Supply's Harvest Week provides the perfect opportunity.
Harvest Week runs through June 12 and the Motor Supply Company Bistro is located on Gervais Street just west of Park Street.