A new exhibit at the Center for Jewish History in New York is showcasing one of the city’s oldest family-run food businesses, and in doing so shining a spotlight on the history and evolution of “appetizing” foods.
When what is now known as Russ & Daughters first opened on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1914, serving Jewish immigrants in an impoverished corner of the city, bagels and lox were not yet part of the nation’s everyday culinary lexicon. The food has since become popular throughout the U.S., along with other Russ & Daughters specialties such as herring, caviar, babka, rugelach, black and white cookies, and other traditional baked goods.
“Jewish food has become very trendy, and bagels and lox have become sort of mainstream,” Niki Russ Federman, who owns Russ & Daughters with her cousin, fellow fourth-generation family member Josh Russ Tupper (both pictured above), tells SFN. “To be able to look back, through the lens of my family and our business, through 105 years of Russ & Daughters, and see the arc of how this humble immigrant food has become iconic New York food, is really amazing.”
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