Russ & Daughters
Bagel shop · Lower East Side ·
Iconic appetizing shop: smoked fish, caviar, bagels & Jewish deli staples
Iconic appetizing shop: smoked fish, caviar, bagels & Jewish deli staples
"A pillar of the city’s Jewish roots, this Lower East Side original began in 1907 with a Polish immigrant selling schmaltz herring and grew into a haven for some of the country’s best lox, homemade bagels, and smoked-fish dips (it even made the list of New York’s best bagels). Head to the original “Appetizing” storefront on Houston Street, take a number, and order a Classic Bagel & Lox with The Works—tomato, onion, and capers." - Emily Adler
"Founded in 1914, this institution has been selling bagels for over 100 years; while the bagels are solid, it’s really about the hand-sliced lox and the feeling that your breakfast is being prepared "with the precision of open-heart surgery," as Rocco DiSpirito puts it. In addition to bagels and Jewish staples like latkes and matzo ball soup, Russ & Daughters is renowned for its smoked and cured fish — go for the classic Gaspé Nova smoked salmon, either on a sandwich or by the pound alongside cream cheese and a dozen bagels. You can visit the original appetizing shop and neighboring café on the Lower East Side or stop by its locations in Hudson Yards and the Brooklyn Navy Yard." - Amelia Schwartz
"Russ & Daughters has been a New York staple for over a century, brought over by Joel Russ, a Jewish immigrant from Strzyzow, Poland, in 1914. Through all the time that’s passed, their quality has remained top-notch and lines for their legendary storefronts remain strong, for good reason. They make their own bagels out of their factory in Brooklyn, and each outpost is equipped with the most fresh, thinly sliced, perfectly salty lox ready to drape over a each steamy, fluffy bagel. It’s probably best to get one with all the fixins—lox, onion, capers, tomato, etc.—but simple cream cheese and lox is also acceptable." - Kat Chen
"At Russ & Daughters I experienced a canonical New York babka—one of several classic spots where the braided, swirled loaf ranks among the city’s beloved Jewish‑deli pastries and inspires creative riffs across menus." - Arati Menon, Megan Spurrell
"An iconic Lower East Side appetizing shop whose refined gefilte fish is sold in elegant quenelles made from an urbane blend of whitefish and salmon. Its polished, restaurant-quality presentation convinced the author that gefilte fish could be fresh, delicate, and aesthetically pleasing rather than the lumpen, jarred specimen of childhood memory." - Rebecca Flint Marx