Day two in New York City with the "glampers" and our itinerary took us into the Lower East Side. Russ & Daughters family-run institution is famous for having sold fish and dairy products on the Lower East Side since 1914. Its range of smoked fish and cream cheese is extraordinary. Despite our rumbling tummies, we were determined to make this our first port of call and take our turn in line.
Founder Joel Russ opened his first store on nearby Orchard Street, selling bagels, cream cheese, salt cured herring and salmon. Daughters Anne and Ida started working for their dad after school, at the tender age of 11. In 1933, Joel added "And Daughters" to the store's name, an historic move believed to have been the first to include "Daughters" in New York history.
Cousins Niki Russ Federman and Joshua Russ Tupper do more than maintain the shop (and cafe around the corner's) star reputation as the ultimate in old-fashioned New York bagel purveyor.
After 30 minutes playing sardines in line at a bustling counter at the people-packed shop on East Houston, I enjoyed my first bite of a bialy — a Jewish delicacy similar to the bagel, though quite a bit lighter and without the central hole. I was intrigued to see how many tubs of cream cheese, bagels and all classic toppings the long line of mostly locals were ordering up for the weekend.
I opted for the "Super Herbster" — whitefish & baked salmon salad with horseradish dill cream cheese and wasabi flying fish roe on a nice, thin bialy. Scrumptious and eaten while standing! The fact that cream cheese is sourced from a California supplier leads me to believe it might well originate in southern Sonoma County or west Marin. If you know whose bounty cream cheese is bound for the celebrated NY Jewish bagel shop, do let me know.
According to "Walks of New York" Russ & Daughters ranks high on the city's best list of Jewish and Kosher food. The popular website explains the roots of this tasty fare: "Much of New York’s Jewish culture stems from the huge influx Eastern European Jews between 1880 and 1920. While “Jewish food” is as diverse as are Jewish populations across the globe, therefore, foods identified as culturally Jewish in New York tend to be those brought by the Ashkenazi from their Eastern European homelands".
The store's website includes a fascinating timeline.
Russ & Daughters Shop is located at: 179 E. Houston St. New York, NY 10002.
Given the length of time we'd waited in line at Russ & Daughters, breakfast served as brunch as we dashed down the street a few blocks to The Tenement Museum. Reservations are required for the variety of tours the Tenement Museum has available. We didn't want to miss our allotted booking, so hurried on over in time to join the 90 minute ground floor "Shop Tour". Family-run stores filled the lower level of 97 Orchard for over a century, where they struggled to adapt to an ever-changing neighborhood and achieve the American Dream. We visited the 1870s German saloon of John and Caroline Schneider.
Three of the four "glampers" are immigrants and the fourth is married to one. I've been researching the cultural groups who settled in southern Sonoma County and coastal west Marin in the mid-1800s for my new book and was particularly enthralled by the East Coast lives of their immigrant counterparts.
We would have liked to have taken all the tours the Tenement Museum has to offer, but given the in-depth quality of each tour and our action-packed schedule, we decided we'd take a different tour each time we find ourselves in New York.
There are three ways to visit the Tenement Museum -
- Tour the building and visit the restored apartments and businesses of past residents and merchants from different time periods
- Meet the residents (played by costumed interpreters) who lived at 97 Orchard Street
- Walk the neighborhood and discover the Lower East Side and the way immigrants helped shaped the area and its culture.
Combine a building tour with a walking tour for a comprehensive museum experience.
The Tenement Museum is located at: 103 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002.
photo: The Tenement Museum of New York
Sturdy walking shoes are a must when traveling with the "glampers"! Glamper Gail was in charge of the next highly contrasted activity on day two, steering us all the way back uptown to The super chic Neue Galerie on Fifth Avenue to see Gustav Klimt's iconic "Woman in Gold".
The painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt is on permanent view at the Neue Galerie. An earlier exhibition coincided with the opening of the historical drama "Woman in Gold," starring Helen Mirren as Adele Bloch-Bauer's niece Maria Altmann, and Ryan Reynolds as lawyer Randol Schoenberg. The film is based upon the true story of how Maria Altmann and Schoenberg successfully sued the Austrian Government for the return of five Klimt paintings seized by the Nazis from the Bloch-Bauer family townhouse in Vienna during World War II.
Neue Galerie is devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design, displayed on two exhibition floors. It's glamorous and atmospheric wood-paneled interiors are popular with fashion magazine shoots.
Twilight was settings in and so we stayed on to rest a while and dine early on a sausage supper and other hearty German fare in the museum's gorgeous Café Sabarsky, named after of Neue Galerie co-founder Serge Sabarsky. This one, of two cafes in the building is modeled on the great Viennese cafés that served as important centers of intellectual and artistic life at the turn of the century.
According to the museum's website blurb, the elegant cafe is:"Outfitted with period objects, including lighting fixtures by Josef Hoffmann, furniture by Adolf Loos, and banquettes that are upholstered with a 1912 Otto Wagner fabric. A Bösendorfer grand piano graces one corner of the Café, and is used for all cabaret, chamber, and classical music performances at the museum.
Neue Galerie New York is located at 1048 Fifth Avenue (at 86th Street).
Museum Hours
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday
11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
(closed Tuesday and Wednesday)
Admission
General $20
Students and seniors (65 and older) $10
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