Russ & Daughters Cafe
The Russ family have sold bagels and lox on the Lower East Side since 1914. Four generations later, this is the door with chairs in it. The MICHELIN Guide carries it at Bib Gourmand in the 2025 New York edition.
Why go
The inspector's example is hot- and cold-smoked Scottish salmon served with everything-bagel chips, two cures against a crunch. He files the whole room as an updated cafe carrying the spirit of the shop a few blocks away.
Caramelized chocolate babka French toast goes out under strawberries. There is an eggs Benny built on salmon, spinach and challah. Regulars take the bar and drink a cocktail or a classic egg cream while they wait.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the smoked Scottish salmon with the everything-bagel chips.
- Order: the babka French toast, if somebody at the table will split it.
- Avoid: treating this as the shop. Retail is at 179 East Houston.
What locals & experts say
- The MICHELIN inspector, on the 2025 New York Bib Gourmand list: the kitchen takes the original appetizing classics
and turns them on their heads to form an array of proper and profoundly flavorful dishes.
1 - Alexandra Ilyashov, Eater NY, October 2018: the business is run by fourth-generation cousins Josh Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman, who have kept the original shop traditional and opened the more modern cafes around town.4
Good to know
- Getting in: book.
- The doors: the original shop is 179 East Houston Street and this cafe is 127 Orchard Street. Two more trade on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn and West 34th Street.
- The family dates the business to 1914. Alexandra Ilyashov dates the East Houston building to 1920, six years after a first storefront on Orchard Street.
Verdict
should-visit — A solo diner does better on a stool here than at a two-top. Book it, then walk to the shop afterward for whatever you want to carry home. Go early; this is breakfast food.