SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's Saturday morning. Would you like a little nosh - bagel with lox and schmear, latkes, babka and rugelach?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Ninety-five.
SIMON: Don't kvetch. There's no better place than Russ & Daughters. It's been on New York's Lower East Side for 114 years.
JOSH RUSS TUPPER: So the tour is not that involved, but we can...
SIMON: I mean, you're giving us a tour...
TUPPER: ...Talk about the cases.
SIMON: ...Of a place that is maybe 20 feet long.
TUPPER: Right. Exactly.
SIMON: But bustling with activity.
TUPPER: Exactly.
SIMON: Josh Russ Tupper is a fourth-generation Russ...
TUPPER: We have a bunch of appetizing in these showcases.
SIMON: ...One of two cousins who now own and run the shop that's about the size of a subway car.
TUPPER: On the fish side - as we call it - we have whitefish, chubs, brook trout, sable, sturgeon and our famous whitefish salad.
SIMON: Oh, whitefish salad. The sides of glistening fish rest behind a glass that gives them a sultry, jewel-like glow next to tubs of pearly cream cheese.
NIKI RUSS FEDERMAN: Russ & Daughters, for me, was a literal mom-and-pop because it was my mom and my pop.
SIMON: Niki Russ Federman is the cousin who practically grew up at the shop.
FEDERMAN: As a kid, I would wait at the doors for the produce delivery guys to come. And they would wheel in with their handcarts - they had sacks - 50-pound sacks of onions, carrots, potatoes. And I would climb on top as if it were my chariot.
SIMON: Niki and Josh took over Russ & Daughters from Niki's parents, and they put together a new book - the reason for our visit today. It is rich with history, musings and recipes drawn from a family's life and lox and more - matzo ball soup, noodle kugel, smoked trout mousse. It's called "Russ & Daughters: 100 Years Of Appetizing."
And why don't we call - why shouldn't we call Russ & Daughters a deli?
FEDERMAN: Because we're not a deli. We're one of the last remaining appetizing stores. Both come from Jewish dietary laws. So delicatessen, in its traditional form, is a place you go for smoked and cured meats. So think pastrami, corned beef, for example. And then the appetizing store is for fish and dairy.
SIMON: Over a century ago, when Joel Russ founded his business, that fish was herring.
TUPPER: My great-grandfather's older sister was a herring maven, and she sponsored him emigrating to the U.S. So our great-grandfather sold schmaltz herring, which is just cured in salt from the pushcart.
SIMON: These days, the real draw at Russ & Daughters is...
TUPPER: Twelve, 13 different types of cold-smoked salmon.
FEDERMAN: I think that...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Thirty-five.
FEDERMAN: ...A bagel and lox is one of the...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Thirty-six.
FEDERMAN: ...Literal tastes of...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Thirty-seven.
FEDERMAN: ...New York.
SIMON: Oh, boy, yes.
FEDERMAN: This is a beautiful side of Gaspe Nova, the classic Russ & Daughters New York-style smoked salmon.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOIL RUSTLING)
SIMON: Right.
A team of slicers - an official job title - work behind the counter slicing salmon so thin you might be able to read the fine print on a cellphone contract through it.
Is there somebody who can show me how to do it?
FEDERMAN: Yeah.
SIMON: I mean...
FEDERMAN: Do you want to try your hand at this, Scott?
SIMON: She moved a sharp, slender knife across an opulently orange side of salmon as surely as a New York Philharmonic violinist wields a bow.
FEDERMAN: I mean, even if you're not good at slicing, Scott...
SIMON: (Laughter).
FEDERMAN: ...That's a pretty poetic assessment. As you move back and forth, you're continuing to feel the contact...
SIMON: Yeah.
FEDERMAN: ...Between the back of the knife on the flesh. As you move it down, you want to continue to see the blade going through the fish. I'm doing it slowly right now so you can see it.
SIMON: Wow. That is so thin.
FEDERMAN: And then...
SIMON: That's amazing. And then (impersonating French accent) en garde.
FEDERMAN: (Laughter).
SIMON: Sorry. I took a turn.
FEDERMAN: We'll see how you do.
SIMON: Oh, jeez.
FEDERMAN: OK.
SIMON: All right.
FEDERMAN: So just be very loose if you can. Don't grip too hard the handle of the knife.
SIMON: My technique was more Freddy Krueger than Itzhak Perlman.
Oh, this is no good at all.
FEDERMAN: (Laughter) But this is - it takes a long time.
SIMON: Three months' apprenticeship, says Niki Russ Federman, to learn how to properly slice salmon.
The artistry is amazing. What's it do for the taste?
FEDERMAN: So the thinness of the slice with the proper angle gives you that subtlety of flavor that you just don't...
SIMON: Right.
FEDERMAN: ...Get with a thick slice or a machine-cut slice.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yeah.
FEDERMAN: It's definitely not the most practical or fast way to do it, but it's the best way.
SIMON: Can I try it one more time?
FEDERMAN: Yes, absolutely. Once you do, when you get the hang of it...
SIMON: Yeah.
FEDERMAN: ...This is actually quite meditative.
SIMON: Yeah.
FEDERMAN: It also gives you a moment to connect with the person you're helping over the counter. So there's...
SIMON: That must be nice...
FEDERMAN: ...Conversation that happens. It's beautiful.
SIMON: ...'Cause they'll say, oh, you know, we have family coming over tonight or...
FEDERMAN: Or they tell us their story about coming to Russ & Daughters, you know, when they were a kid, and now they're bringing their kids. There's always this interaction over the counter that is facilitated by the fact that you have to stand and wait and watch your salmon being sliced, your herring being cut, your cream cheese being spread.
Our food, especially, is the food of memory. And so it's through the food that you connect with others and you connect with who you are and where you come from. You know, it's a time portal. It can transport you immediately to your past and to a memory.
SIMON: At Russ & Daughters, the past is right outside the front door and around the corner on Orchard Street.
FEDERMAN: Actually, right here was where our great-grandfather first opened his shop.
SIMON: Right here.
FEDERMAN: So...
SIMON: It's a karaoke bar now.
FEDERMAN: ...First, he was probably on these streets. Before he could open a store, he worked for seven years as a street vendor.
SIMON: Today it's home to boutique hotels, galleries and trendy bars. But when Joel Russ arrived at the turn of the 20th century, this slice of New York teemed with newcomers.
FEDERMAN: People just packed into these tenement buildings. Really, I - this neighborhood - the Lower East Side - is probably one of the most historically significant places in the United States because we are an immigrant country and so many immigrants got their start here after arriving at Ellis Island. This was their landing spot.
SIMON: A few more blocks down Orchard Street, and we arrive at a fairly new addition to the family biz.
TUPPER: We found the latkes.
FEDERMAN: (Laughter).
SIMON: We're about to take latkes.
A decade ago, Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper opened Russ & Daughters Cafe, a place to sit and nosh.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOD SIZZLING)
SIMON: Oh, my.
And that's where we sat down over a plate of crispy latkes to talk about that history.
FEDERMAN: It's our understanding that Russ & Daughters is the first business in this country to have & Daughters in its name. It wasn't the original name. One of the first names was Russ's Cut-Rate Appetizing because our great-grandfather had to, I guess, compete with the many other appetizing stores on the Lower East Side. You know, if there had been a son, it probably would have been Russ & Sons, but...
TUPPER: Then he had three daughters. And as we've been told, he wasn't the most pleasant of shopkeepers. What did he like to say - lose the address?
FEDERMAN: So he would say, Lady, do me a favor. Forget the address...
TUPPER: Forget the address.
SIMON: (Laughter).
FEDERMAN: ...If he didn't like you. At some point, he needed help, so he looked to his family, and his daughters came to work at a very young age.
TUPPER: Your father would tell the story of - our Great-Aunt Hattie (ph) was so good at, like, cutting the fish and be like, oh, this fish is so beautiful. It's wonderful. And she was, like, very charismatic and really good, and customers would get into it. And then your father one day tried to do that to a customer. He's like, oh, look at the slices on this fish. And the customer was like, do me a favor. Don't fall in love with the merchandise.
SIMON: (Laughter).
TUPPER: It didn't work at all (laughter).
FEDERMAN: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a lifelong customer of ours.
SIMON: Oh.
FEDERMAN: As a child, she would come and visit her grandparents. And she gave an interview where she said that growing up, seeing the name Russ & Daughters taught her that - before she knew the word feminist, she learned that women could matter in an enterprise the same as men can.
SIMON: Forgive me. Before I ask my next question, I just have to have a little...
(SOUNDBITE OF DISHES CLINKING)
SIMON: ...Yeah.
FEDERMAN: Come get a latke. So there's sour cream and apple sauce, is one classic combination, and then salmon always comes fresh.
SIMON: (Through full mouth) Have you had this?
TUPPER: That's that voice we know.
FEDERMAN: (Laughter).
SIMON: I mean, warm and potatoey (ph) on the inside, and then the hint of onion. God, this is good. Sorry. Oh, forgive me.
(Through full mouth) I've never done an interview quite so...
TUPPER: Delicious.
SIMON: If somebody comes up to you and says, what should I have here, what do you say?
TUPPER: We created this restaurant to have the sit-down appetizing experience. So really, the way you should eat this is four-plus people. Get your platter of smoked fish. Order from the whole menu.
FEDERMAN: It was a little meshugana - it's the Yiddish word to say crazy - of us to think that we could open a restaurant because neither Josh nor I had any restaurant experience. But we did know our store, and we knew our food. And sometimes it - you know, we would argue over things. Does matzo brei go on the menu? Does it not go on the menu?
SIMON: Is it on the menu?
TUPPER: No.
FEDERMAN: Well...
TUPPER: No.
FEDERMAN: ...It was.
TUPPER: It was.
SIMON: Oh, what happened?
FEDERMAN: Turns out that the simplest dish...
SIMON: Yeah?
FEDERMAN: ...Is the hardest.
TUPPER: The most challenging.
FEDERMAN: Matzo brei...
TUPPER: Every time...
FEDERMAN: ...Was the bane of our existence.
TUPPER: Yeah.
SIMON: How so?
TUPPER: Every person that ordered matzo brei...
SIMON: Yeah?
TUPPER: ...Had a memory.
SIMON: Oh, of a matzo brei at home.
TUPPER: Their matzo brei...
SIMON: Right. Of course. Yeah.
TUPPER: ...Their grandmother's matzo brei, their mother's matzo brei, and they're all different - sweet, savory.
FEDERMAN: Wet, dry...
TUPPER: Soggy - yeah, soggy matzo, dry matzo.
FEDERMAN: ...Peppery (ph).
TUPPER: Right. Basically, everyone who ordered was unhappy.
FEDERMAN: Because we could never match their taste memory. Now you have to know to ask for matzo brei. So...
TUPPER: You can still order it.
FEDERMAN: ...We'll make it for you. But you got to work a...
SIMON: Really.
FEDERMAN: ...A little hard.
TUPPER: Don't tell anyone about this.
SIMON: Oh, OK, no. It'll stay between us. Don't you worry.
TUPPER: (Laughter).
SIMON: I mean, you must be aware of the fact that - well, there are people, undoubtedly, who will wander in casually, but to a lot of people who come here and whose families have come here - I mean, let me put it this way. Russ & Daughters is not just another place to eat.
FEDERMAN: No. It's almost a pilgrimage site. A lot of people can trace their family histories and beginnings back to this neighborhood. Every day, we're reminded of why this place and this food matters. And I realize, also, that we have fewer and fewer small businesses, these sort of touchstones in our communities that in a real way connect us to our past and anchor us in the neighborhoods we live in. And Russ & Daughters is that place for so many people. And so it's hard work, but it's a real joy to be able to be a steward of keeping this going.
TUPPER: Not to put too much pressure on our kids, we both hope that the fifth generation is - that's why we're doing this. We're holding the torch to pass on to the next generation.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Josh Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman. Their new cookbook is "Russ & Daughters: 100 Years Of Appetizing." And to sample their matzo brei recipe - that's matzo soaked in water, mixed with eggs and fried - you can go to npr.org. Our story was produced by Samantha Balaban.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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