Morris East gets ready for winter

When so much of your menu is based on the fresh food available locally and through the farmers market, what happens now, with the ground frozen and goods harder to come by? Shoptalk put this question to Jennie Dobbs, owner of stylish pizza-and-more bistro Morris East (5212 Morris Street, 444-7663) with its menus changing more regularly than the seasons. “I’m really looking forward to the months ahead,” she reports without hesitation. For starters, a trip to Quebec will help source artisanal cheeses and cured meats. “We tend to focus on our charcuterie in the winter months,” says Dobbs. “We’re going to have the best prosciutto in town.” Also expect tomatoes, preserved from the summer, and more root vegetables; beet salad and potato salad with double-smoked back bacon. Morris East has also been busy concocting fruit liqueurs, which include the juice of strawberries and blackberries, as well as “garden vodka”—using diced onion, carrots and celery—which they use in their bloody mary, along with a house-made tomato juice. And look out for a Saturday brunch to start up in February, where they’ll be cooking up eggs in a skillet in their wood oven. Check out Morris East’s revamped website, including ongoing detail about Dobbs’s philosophies of food preparation, recipes and photographs, at morriseast.com.