The Morris

The editorial take

The Morris, at 2501 Mariposa Street on the Potrero Flats corner of Mariposa and Hampshire, is the rare restaurant where the beverage program, not the kitchen, sets the identity - a modest 48-seat bistro with 15 bar seats whose wine-first reputation rests on founder and sommelier Paul Einbund, a veteran of Coi and Frances and one of Food & Wine's Sommeliers of the Year. The centerpiece is a 51-page Big Wine List that reads like a Francophile's private cellar: deep grower Champagne (Pierre Péters, Bérêche, Jacquesson, Vilmart, Selosse running to the triple digits), Loire chenin legends from Huet to Guiberteau, Austrian and German Riesling stacked up through Keller and Nikolaihof, a Beaujolais bench anchored by Lapierre and Yvon Métras, and a Savoie section - Gringet, Altesse, Roussette - that matches Einbund's stated conviction that Savoie is the world's most exciting wine region. Wine is offered by the glass and half-bottle, with a house red and white by the centiliter at roughly $2 a centiliter if you want 'pay only for what you drink', and the small room fronts a glassed-in wine cooler. What makes The Morris genuinely singular is the digestif program that follows dinner: a multi-page Chartreuse collection served chilled in custom leaf-shaped snifters, from cardinal-episcopal-pontifical blends of Green, Yellow, MOFS and 1605 to vintage bottles like a 1912-1913 Tarragona and a 1973 VEP Yellow, set beside a genepi flight and an amaro shelf, all rounded out by Madeira selections going back to an 1885 Blandy's Verdelho and 1930s D'Oliveira bottlings poured by the two-ounce taste. It is a wine-first restaurant where the strongest argument is not a single dish but the entire journey from grower bubbles through aged Madeira and Chartreuse.

What should I order?

Let the sommelier-led program set the path rather than ordering by dish alone. Start with the glass-bottle tension of the short list - a By-the-Glass grower or a Loire chenin like 2023 Clemens Busch Riesling Kabinett or the Beaujolais bench - then use the centiliter house red or white if you want to taste before committing to a full bottle. The real destination is after dinner: ask for the Chartreuse list's cardinal variation (two-thirds Green, one-third Yellow) poured chilled in the signature snifter to understand the house obsession, step up to a vintage bottle like the Cuvée des MOFS or a VEP Yellow, and close with a two-ounce aged Madeira - the 1932 or 1929 D'Oliveira bottlings and the 1885 Blandy's Verdelho are the deepest value on the page. For a cocktail round, the Chartreuse Slushy and the Morris 75 (Armagnac, lemon, Champagne) show the house style, and the Army-Navy is the cleanest classic. The 15-seat bar pours the full dinner menu, so a solo run at the counter can be the easiest way to move through Champagne by the glass.

Who will enjoy this place?

Wine-first diners who want a sommelier's ecosystem rather than a bottle-shop shelf, plus the digestif-curious: people who geek out on grower Champagne, Loire chenin, Savoie or old Riesling, and especially anyone who has been chasing Chartreuse, genepi or amaro. It suits a special-occasion table where the wine list is the main course and the kitchen is companion, and it rewards the two-ounce Madeira-and-organic-coffee end of a long meal. It is less the room for someone who wants a towering cocktail menu or a fast bar-and-snack stop; the cocktail list is compact and the tone is sit-down bistro rather than cocktail lounge.

When should I go?

Dinner service runs Monday through Saturday from 5 to 9:30, with the restaurant closed on Sunday; lunch is no longer on the current list, so plan for evening. Early in the week is quietest and the best time to slow down with the Chartreuse and Madeira books at the bar. The month of the visit also marks ten years of The Morris, and the house runs special programming such as the 'Farmers in Wine Series' dinners (a Raj Parr edition was scheduled for mid-August 2026), so check the calendar; those wine-dinner nights are the fullest expression of the program. Reservations open a month ahead on Resy and walk-ins land at the bar, which seats about fifteen.

What should I expect to spend?

Prices are listed on the current menu and wine list, so there is less guesswork than at many peers. Cocktails run roughly $14 to $25, beers $8 to $20, the house wine by the centiliter computes to about $2 a centiliter, and by-the-glass wines in the short list sit in the mid-teens-to-forty range. The serious money is in bottles - a cellar list that climbs from workhorse Beaujolais and Riesling at under $100 through triple-digit grower Champagne and Burgundy up to grand-cru bottles like a $5,900 Coche-Dury Corton-Charlemagne. Madeira tastes are the approachable entry at $18 to $85 per two-ounce pour, with truly old bottlings far above. Add a $50 corkage if you bring your own and a 6% employee-benefit surcharge.

What makes the beverage program distinctive?

The Morris is a restaurant where the wine and digestif program is the attraction, and it is built like one man's encyclopedic palate rather than a market scan. Einbund's spend and selections skew Francophile and age-obsessed - grower Champagne and grand-cru Burgundy alongside a Loire chenin and Savoie depth you rarely see this far outside a private cellar - and no other spot in the city pairs that with a Chartreuse library that spans a 1912-1913 Tarragona and a 1973 VEP Yellow served in custom snifters, a genepi and amaro shelf, and century-plus Madeira by the glass. It is that rare room where one of Food & Wine's Sommeliers of the Year greets you at the door and the 'pay only for what you drink' centiliter house wine keeps a maximum list refreshingly usable. The combination of a deep grower-Champagne and Burgundy core, an old-wine Madeira and Chartreuse close, and a warm 48-seat bistro scale is the whole argument.

Beverage categories

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