Announced back in 2014, the kosher café and takeout counter run by Russ & Daughters of the Lower East Side who have been operating for a century there as a non-kosher shop and more recently a cafe. They are now bringing their old-school Jewish foods to the Upper East Side in a kosher cafe, seating 70, on the lower level of The Jewish Museum, which opened earlier this week. The takeout counter is set to open shortly.
The menu (which doubles as the placemat) offers a real smorgasbord of Eastern European & Lower East Side Jewish food favorites that you’d easily find served at a bris … just classier, and more expensive.
You can expect to find:
- Knishes
- Lox
- Kasha Varnishkas
- Bagels
- (Vegetarian) Chopped Liver
- Whitefish
- Sable
- Challah
- Shakshouka (ok, that’s neither from Europe or New York, but I won’t shoot them for serving it)
- Pickled herring
- Schmaltz
- Blintzes
- Kugel
- and much more…
There’s also a wine / cocktails / beer menu to help you round out your meal.
Hours for the Russ & Daughters Cafe at the Jewish Museum are:
Sunday: 11 am – 5:45 pm
Monday: 11 am – 5:45 pm
Tuesday: 11 am – 5:45 pm
Wednesday: 11 am – 5:45 pm
Thursday: 11 am – 8 pm
Friday: 11 am – 4 pm
Saturday: Closed
Kashrut is provided by Rabbi Mehlman. As of the publishing date of this post (see above), the restaurant is not Cholov Yisroel, however, I just spoke to the mashgiach who is working on site: he is attempting to get all the necessary items from a Cholov Yisroel supplier within the next few weeks. This post will be updated when we hear back from him confirming that the restaurant is in fact CY.
