COLUMBIA — After a decade at Motor Supply Company Bistro, Executive Chef Wes Fulmer has left the upscale Southern cuisine restaurant. 

Fulmer led the restaurant, a staple in the city's food scene and one of the first restaurants to open in the Vista, since 2014. He announced his departure in an Instagram post Feb. 14. His last day with Motor Supply was Feb. 11, Fulmer confirmed. 

"We are grateful for his years of hard work and for powering our team to keep sustainability at the forefront of what we do, in the farm to table movement," the restaurant's owner Eddie Wales told Free Times. "We're gonna continue to focus on creating amazing food and culinary experiences, and we look forward to see what happens next with Wes."

Wales did not say who would replace Fulmer, but noted that the eatery will lean on its sous chefs in the interim. 

The fine-dining chef, originally from Prosperity, worked in restaurants in cities like New Orleans and Kiawah Island after attending culinary school in Boulder, Colo. He also worked abroad at Michelin-starred restaurant Christian Etienne in France. When he brought his culinary talents back to Columbia, Motor afforded him his first chance to lead a kitchen on his own. 

"I fulfilled one of my lifelong goals of being an executive chef," Fulmer told Free Times. "I didn't do it by myself — I had a lot of people help me, and I'm so grateful for those people."

The shake-up comes a few years after Motor's lead bartender, who revamped not only the restaurant's cocktail program but the city's drink scene, left after nearly a decade with the eatery. Josh Streetman, who led Motor's eight-person bar since 2010, left the restaurant at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Motor Supply opened in the arts, restaurant and retail district along Gervais Street in 1989, before the area was known as the Vista. The restaurant, along with eclectic nightlife spot Art Bar, is one of the few remaining original businesses. It's one of the city's prominent fine-dining eateries that puts an emphasis on ingredients sourced from local farmers and artisans. 

With his departure, Fulmer teased an upcoming project, calling it "something exciting that Columbia doesn't have right now." He declined to share further details about the project. 

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Growth and development reporter

Hannah Wade covers growth, development and new business at the Post and Courier Columbia. She previously worked as the food writer for the Free Times. Before joining Post and Courier Columbia/Free Times, Hannah worked as a reporting and photojournalism intern with The Greenville News. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2021. 

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