{"id":2239,"date":"2014-12-09T22:58:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T22:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wyvern.ctl.columbia.edu\/?p=102"},"modified":"2021-07-22T11:35:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-22T11:35:20","slug":"russ-and-daughters-appetizing-1914","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishstudiescolumbia.com\/myny\/food\/russ-and-daughters-appetizing-1914\/","title":{"rendered":"Russ and Daughters: Appetizing Since 1914"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Elizabeth Edelman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"http:\/\/instagram.com\/russanddaughters\"<\/a>
Figure 1. Russ & Daughters Sign.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On 179 Houston Street<\/a> sits a narrow building. On the ground level is the Russ and Daughters appetizing shop. Above the shop is a narrow apartment building that used to be tenements-crowded with new immigrants.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This Lower East Side building is a cultural icon and is also a historic one. In 2001 the building became a National Historic Landmark for its nearly 100-year-old shop on the ground level and because of the historic tenements above.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The shop, which was once described as \u201ca secular synagogue,”<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0evolved over the years but remains a symbol of the Lower East Side. \u201cBy the 1940s Russ and Daughters was well known for the finest fish in town.”<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Today, 179 Houston\u2019s Russ and Daughters appetizing shop is a hot spot for foodies and alter kaker\u2019s alike!<\/p>\n

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Figure 2. The storefront today.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For more than one-hundred years, the Russ family has been serving New York\u2019s appetizing needs. Joel Russ, the founder of the store, broke into the food business at nine-years-old when he was an apprentice to a baker.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Russ\u2019s older sister, who had already immigrated, sent for her younger brother to come to New York to work and help support her family.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In no time Russ had saved up enough money to buy his own pushcart and began selling his pickled herring.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> By 1914, Joel Russ was ready to expand and opened his first storefront appetizing shop on Orchard and Houston on the Lower East Side.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Figure 3. Russ and Daughters storefront.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the massive influx of Eastern European Jewish immigrants\u00a0to New York came the appetizing shop. Not to be confused with the adjective, this \u2018appetizing\u2019 according to the Russ and Daughters website, is food \u201cone eats with bagels.\u201d<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Appetizing delicacies usually consist of different kinds of smoked and cured fish as well as pickled vegetables, salads and cream cheese.<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> When Russ first opened his store there were many more like it, but today Russ and Daughters is one of the few authentic appetizing shops left in New York and it\u00a0is definitely among the oldest.<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Many of these stores didn\u2019t survive because first generation immigrants did not expect or even want their children to inherit the\u00a0stores upon their retirement.<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Joel Russ did not feel this way. The store was everything to him and he insisted that his three daughters work behind the counter on their weekends beginning when they were eleven or twelve years old.<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Figure 4. Joel Russ’s daughter, Anne, working at the counter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1920, Russ moved to a larger store on 179 Houston Street<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> where it still stands today. By 1933, Russ added the \u2018and Daughters\u2019 to the shop\u2019s title and named his three girls full partners of the store\u2014all of which was quite unheard of at the time.<\/span>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span> One of the shop\u2019s celebrity enthusiasts\u00a0is Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg\u00a0who said that, \u201cEven before I heard the word \u2018feminist,\u2019 it made me happy to see this was an enterprise where the daughters counted.”<\/span>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Figure 5. Russ and his three daughters: Hattie, Ida and Anne.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, Russ and Daughters is run by a fourth-generation of Russ owners. When one of Joel Russ\u2019s great-grandchildren became a doctor instead of joining the family business his father noted that, \u201cAs far as I know, I am the only Jewish father who was disappointed that his kid became a doctor. I was thinking sturgeon, not surgeon.”<\/span>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Figure 6. Joel Russ’s great-grandchildren,\u00a0Nikki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joel Russ created a Lower East Side icon one hundred years ago and it is still incredibly popular today. In May of 2014, the Village Voice named Russ and Daughters the number one appetizing counter in New York City<\/span>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span> beating well-known spots like Zabars and Barney Greengrass. Joel Russ\u2019s great-grandchildren, Nikki Russ Federman and Josh Tupper have maintained the counter as an authentic appetizing shop while expanding the business to serve the evolving Lower East Side community. Recently, Federman and Tupper opened a second dining location, Russ and Daughters Caf\u00e9, on 127 Orchard Street just a few blocks from the original shop. At this location they serve Russ and Daughters\u2019 classics along with hip twists on old favorites.<\/p>\n

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Figure 7. Russ and Daughters classics like bagels and lox are served with new favorites such as the Hot Smoke\/Cold Smoke (top left) and the Super Heebster (bottom left).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Proof of Russ and Daughter\u2019s culinary expertise is obvious through the many reviews given by food and restaurant critics. In\u00a0a video of Martha Stewart on a tour of the Houston Street location, Stewart is\u00a0endless in her praise of everything behind the counter.<\/p>\n

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Figure 8. A\u00a0screenshot from the video.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russ and Daughters\u2019 popularity transcends religion, ethnicity and culture. It has become a symbol of New York cuisine and deservedly so. This historic site has truly maintained the spirit and flavor of what the Lower East Side was when Russ and Daughters first opened, and its survival demonstrates the timelessness of delicious food.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n