MARCH 2020 105
IT’S THREE IN THE AFTERNOON, and Niki Russ Federman has
forgotten to eat lunch. She washes down a bite of latke with a
swig of lemonade. Through a mouthful of bagel chips topped
with cheese that her cousin and business partner, Josh Russ
Tupper, brought back from Holland, Niki says, “That’s the
irony of working in restaurants. You’re around food all the
time, but then you forget to sit down and have a meal.”
Niki calls herself a shop kid. Though she didn’t eat smoked
salmon and caviar for every meal, she grew up helping her
parents around Russ & Daughters. Yet for Josh, who grew up
on an ashram in upstate New York and wasn’t as exposed
to the shop, pickled herring and Gaspé Nova were special-
occasion foods. As a kid, Josh used to get so excited at family
gatherings that he would pile every kind of fish and every
flavor of cream cheese on top of one bagel.
Now, Niki and Josh use the downtime of holiday meals to
dream up new dishes, like Babka French Toast or Egg in a
Bagel Hole, which involves a griddled half bagel with an egg
fried in the center. It’s become so popular among their family
that Niki and Josh are considering adding it to the menu at
Russ & Daughters Cafe (see the recipe on p. 110).
Niki and Josh care for Russ & Daughters as though it’s a
member of their family. “You sacrifice for this thing,” Niki
says. “You want to secure its future.” They also see the com-
munity around Russ & Daughters as family and understand
the meaning that their shop holds. “Russ & Daughters
becomes their place,” Niki says. “When this baby was born,
when this person got married. The food is their vehicle for
memory.”RUSS & DAUGHTERS
New York CityTHE RUSS FAMILY
Egg in a Bagel Hole (recipe p. 110)
makes a great pairing for beet
shrub cocktails (p. 111).
right, from left: Christopher Mee-
han, Niki Russ Federman, Denise
Porcaro, and Josh Russ Tupper