It’s called the Lower Sunny Side, and that’s the menu item Tami Katzoff was enjoying on a recent visit to Russ & Daughters Cafe on the Lower East Side.

It features an egg, with latkes, lox and a chocolate egg cream to wash it down. Katzoff was in town for a few days, and knew where she would eat her first meal.

“This was my one priority, coming into town. This was the one thing that I had to do,” said Katzoff, who used to live on the Lower East Side.

What You Need To Know

  • Russ & Daughters Cafe has reopened on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side after a two and a half year pandemic closure

  • It is the sit-down dining location of Russ & Daughters, the legendary shop on East Houston Street that is 108 years old

  • Russ & Daughters is famous for its Jewish comfort foods, like smoked fish, latkes and blintzes, brought to New York by Jewish immigrants in the 1800s

  • Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper are the fourth-generation owners of the business

Her timing couldn’t have been better, because Russ & Daughters Cafe on Orchard Street, which was closed for nearly two and a half years because of the pandemic, is back in business.

Favorites like bagels and lox, blintzes and matzo ball soup are on the menu, along with desserts like babka.

The cafe is the sit-down dining location of Russ & Daughters, the legendary 108-year-old shop on East Houston Street known for appetizing, Jewish comfort food brought over by Eastern European immigrants in the 1800s.

“We’re all about just keeping these classic New York foods alive,” said Niki Russ Federman, the fourth-generation co-owner of Russ & Daughters along with cousin Josh Russ Tupper.

It was their great-grandfather Joel Russ who first opened the shop in 1914, after spending seven years selling herring from a barrel and pushcart.

A century later, Niki and Josh opened the cafe, but made the tough decision to shut down in March 2020.

“I don’t want to be the generation that kills Russ & Daughters so we had to find a way, and we talk the sort of unusual approach to play the long game and not reopen until it really felt like it was the right time,” Russ Federman said.

The family was able to sustain the business through their nationwide shipping operation, their Brooklyn Navy Yard location and a supportive landlord on Orchard Street.

She says it didn’t take long for word to get out that they were back in business at the cafe.

“It almost feels like, there’s this very joyous feeling here, and I think it’s partly because Russ & Daughters is so much of a symbol or an institution in New York,” Russ Federman said. “To be open again is kind of almost like saying the worst is over, you know. We made it through even though as a city we are still dealing with it, but we will get through.”