History and Herring at Russ & Daughters
A trip to New York City is not complete without a visit to Russ & Daughters, the Jewish food destination famous for its legendary smoked fish and shmears. The iconic Lower East Side appetizing institution has been catering breakfasts and brises for decades.
Original founder Joel Russ named the business after his three daughters, Hattie, Ida and Anne, who eventually became the second generation to run Russ & Daughters.
Now cousins Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper are the fourth generation owners. ORA spoke to Niki about how the business has evolved through the generations and what’s next on the horizon.
ORA: Russ & Daughters has been a New York institution for over a century. What’s it like to be part of the generation carrying that torch?
NRF: It’s immensely gratifying to steward an institution that means so much to so many. My days are wonderfully varied and let me tap into every facet of running a business.
I get instant gratification seeing how people love our food, whether they’ve eaten it their whole lives or are trying it for the first time. Legacy foods like ours evoke powerful memories. They remind people who they are and where they come from. I hear these stories every day and never tire of them.
I also feel lucky to run Russ & Daughters with my cousin, Josh Russ Tupper. We are two members of the fourth generation with complementary strengths. We may differ on small decisions, but we are completely aligned on the big things: our shared commitment to the longevity and meaning of Russ & Daughters.
Being part of the fabric of this city, truly a taste of New York, is a privilege.
ORA: Thinking back to your parents and grandparents, what’s a lesson from them that you find yourself returning to, either in business or in life?
NRF: The insistence on quality is something that has been carried through from each generation that has run Russ & Daughters. I was taught that your reputation rides on your quality.
ORA: Russ & Daughters is so rooted in tradition. How do you decide when to keep things exactly as they’ve always been and when to try something new?
NRF: That’s precisely the question that informs everything we do at Russ & Daughters: How do we maintain tradition while also moving it forward?
Staying the same and making changes seem like they should be opposing forces that are mutually exclusive. But the fascinating challenge for us is how to do both at the same time. I think this is what gives Russ & Daughters its timeless relevance.
When people are either at Russ & Daughters or enjoying our food from home, they are simultaneously connecting to the past while also feeling very much in the present.
ORA: Was there ever a moment when you really felt the weight of being responsible for such an important family legacy?
NRF: Yes. During the pandemic I felt incredible responsibility.
Three weeks into the shutdown I was alone in Russ & Daughters Cafe. It was silent. Everything wrapped up. Chairs on the tables. An eerie stillness in a place that had always been full of life.
I looked at the black and white photograph of my great grandfather, Joel Russ, above one of the booths and realized Covid was Russ & Daughters’ second pandemic. He had gone through the Spanish influenza of 1918 only four years after opening.
Each generation has endured at least one calamity, whether the Depression, wars, recession, or 9/11. That history made me determined to do whatever it took to see us through this one.
We stayed open as an essential food business, delivering to local hospitals and senior centers and shipping care packages nationwide. Our customers sent Russ & Daughters to loved ones as a way to send love when they could not be together.
Knowing our food brought comfort during such a stressful time fueled us to keep going.
ORA: Every generation does things a little differently. How would you say your leadership style is different from the generations before you?
NRF: I learned so much from my father, Mark Russ Federman, in terms of dedication, work ethic, appreciating what makes Russ & Daughters special and what it takes to protect that.
But he always felt that no one cares as much about a business as the person whose name is on the door. On that point, I respectfully disagree.
My cousin and I have been able to grow Russ & Daughters precisely because we work with such an incredible group of passionate people. They have expanded what it means to be a family business.
ORA: Your business has such deep roots in New York’s Jewish community. How does that heritage still shape what you do today?
NRF: Our Jewish heritage and history is the bedrock of Russ & Daughters.
We have been part of the Jewish life cycle across generations from bris to bar and bat mitzvahs to shidduchs to shivas. A lot of people experience their Jewishness through our food whether it’s a bagel and lox brunch or a Yom Kippur break-the-fast.
An older customer who comes every Sunday told me that when he married a shiksa, his family worried about how his children would know they were Jewish.
“Easy,” he replied. “My kids will have Russ & Daughters. This is my temple.”
I love that.
ORA: When you think about the next generation, what’s the one thing you hope they’ll carry forward from your family’s story?
NRF: My cousin and I each have two kids, but they are all young, so we don’t know if anyone is going to carry this on.
If there is a fifth generation, I hope they preserve the continuity of our quality and haimishness, and that they know what it means to work hard and be committed to something larger than yourself.
But I also want them to know that a legacy can only survive and thrive if each generation puts their own stamp on it.
ORA: You have a new book out. What sparked the idea, and what do you hope people will take away from it?
NRF: It only took us 100 years to write a cookbook.
We wanted to give our customers a way to have Russ & Daughters even if they couldn’t visit one of our locations or order from us.
We envisioned this as more than a cookbook. It’s our heartfelt attempt to capture 100 years of Russ & Daughters through recipes, stories, mementos and images.
Our food is perishable, but a book is not.
The best way to experience Russ & Daughters is in person. Trust us, it’s worth the schlep to the Lower East Side. But if a trip to New York is not on your Bingo card anytime soon, you can order their legendary smoked fish and baked goods on Goldbelly and buy the new book Russ & Daughters: 100 Years of Appetizing on Amazon or Goldbelly.
Russ & Daughters
179 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002
russanddaughters.com
@russanddaughters
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