There's a familiar face now at the helm of The War Mouth restaurant in Columbia's Cottontown neighborhood.Â
In the last few weeks, Harold Pendleton took over as the executive chef for the laidback Southern restaurant just off Columbia's North Main Street, following a nearly seven-year tenure from former chef Rhett Elliott.Â
"Chef Harold has been putting out great food with us for a while now, so it’s been awesome to watch him grow as a chef," said Porter Barron, the restaurant's owner.Â
Since its opening in December 2015, the spot has garnered a strong reputation for its bar program, led by head bar manager David Adedokun, along with a back-to-Midlands-roots food under Elliott's leadership.Â
Elliott and Barron opened the spot together and Elliott has run the kitchen since the restaurant's inception.Â
Pendleton started working in the kitchen of the restaurant after moving to Columbia from Greenville around the start of 2016. He's worked as a line cook for The War Mouth since then and spearheaded the restaurant's lunch offerings, which have been on pause since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
"Rhett brought something to Columbia that it hadn't had before and that was having a passionate, highly trained chef who grew up in the Midlands," Barron said. "He put out the food that so many of us grew up with, but through his lens. And to have those menu items done justice, ... I thought that was meaningful."
With Pendleton's promotion to executive chef, Barron said he hopes to bring back lunch to the restaurant's offering in the coming months but didn't specify when lunch would be back.Â
The War Mouth is located at 1209 Franklin St. in Columbia and is open 4-10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and until midnight on Friday and Saturday.Â
