Russ & Daughters Cafe

The story

Russ & Daughters Cafe NYC: Jewish Comfort Food & Bib Gourmand on Orchard Street

A century of appetite, now with a seat

Russ & Daughters Cafe opened in 2014, exactly 100 years after Joel Russ first signed a lease for an appetizing shop on Orchard Street. The cafe is the sit-down extension of the legendary Russ & Daughters appetizing store, a New York institution that began in 1904 when Joel Russ, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, peddled herring from a pushcart on the Lower East Side.

The name itself is historic: in 1933, Joel Russ renamed the business “Russ & Daughters” after his three daughters, Hattie, Ida, and Anne—the first known American business with “& Daughters” in its name. Today, fourth-generation cousins Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper carry the family legacy forward.

What is “appetizing”?

This is not a deli. Appetizing is a Jewish food tradition rooted in the Eastern European “forshpayz”—cold appetizers served before a meal. Because Jewish dietary laws separate meat and dairy, appetizing stores specialized in fish and dairy products, while delicatessens handled cured meats. At Russ & Daughters Cafe, you’ll find smoked and cured salmon, homemade salads, and cream cheeses—the foods one eats with bagels. The cafe honors this tradition with a full, sit-down menu that lets you linger over the same flavors that have drawn customers to the family’s Houston Street storefront for generations.

A Bib Gourmand on the Lower East Side

The Michelin Guide awarded Russ & Daughters Cafe a Bib Gourmand in 2026, recognizing its “good quality, good value cooking.” This is no surprise to anyone who has walked in—the cafe is walk-in only, no reservations—and found a plate of silky nova lox, a perfectly chewy bagel, and a schmear that tastes like history. The cafe has been called one of the 10 best new restaurants in New York, and Pete Wells described it as “a sit-down branch of the century-old Russ & Daughters appetizing business, and not a minute too soon.”

The space and the experience

Located at 127 Orchard Street, the cafe seats up to 68 guests and has hosted everything from weddings to birthdays. The atmosphere is warm and unpretentious, grounded in the same Lower East Side energy that has sustained the family business for over a century. The menu changes seasonally, but the soul of the place remains constant: smoked fish, herring, bagels, and the kind of hospitality that makes you feel like family.