Russ & Daughters Café - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Restaurant Review

Russ & Daughters Café

by Tara Q. Thomas • April 30, 2015

On weekends and holidays, the lines at Russ & Daughters on the Lower East Side snake out the door. That’s how good they are at “appetizing,” their focus since they opened in 1914. Appetizing, in this case, is a noun, and refers to all the smoked and pickled fish, sliced or saladed, that might make its way onto a bagel. That may not sound like the most likely basis for a restaurant, but fourth-generation store owners Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper have pulled it off. Go for the knishes, light, fluffy and seasoned with caramelized onions; order the sumptuous smoked whitefish chowder, with a side of butter-gilded matzo. And be sure to order a drink. Yana Volfson, former drink guru for Peels and Freeman’s, found that the best matches for the smoked fish tend to have high acidity but significant body as well; here, that means Királyudvar sparkling Tokaji or Granbazán Albariño; Raffault Chinon Rosé or Pignier Poulsard. The exception might be the egg dishes, but only because the Bloody Marys are so compelling, with their exotic vodka infusions. And, Volfson admits, pickled herring is a challenge. For that, only vodka will do.

127 Orchard St., (btw. Rivington & Delancey), New York, NY

Cafe

212-475-4881

russanddaughterscafe.com

Tara Q. Thomas

is W&S’s editor at large and covers the wines of the Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe for the magazine.

This story appears in the print issue of April 2015.
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TAGS Cafe New & Notable New York New York City Restaurant

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

Corey Warren
Tastings Editor

Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

Tara Q. Thomas
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Since Tara Q. Thomas joined Wine & Spirits in 1997, she’s traveled the wine world from Argentina to Australia. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with more than 20 years of experience in the food and wine world, Tara puts her culinary knowledge to use as W&S’s resident food critic, and is the critic for the wines of Austria, Germany, Eastern Europe, Argentina, and the Mediterranean. She’s particularly enthusiastic about the wines of Greece, where she once lived and cooked. Outside of W&S, Tara has authored two books, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wine Basics and The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Wine; contributed to the Oxford Companion to Cheese as well as Oxford’s forthcoming volume on spirits; and writes a wine column for Culture: The Word on Cheese.

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After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.