Russ & Daughters’ Niki Russ Federman Shares Her Favorite Lower East Side Restaurants

That’s my go-to ramen for lunch or a meal right after work. It’s right around the corner from Russ & Daughters, our O.G. shop on East Houston Street. Especially on a cold day, I love just running around the corner and going in there. Both the food and the vibe are very warm. It’s casual, but it’s got excellent ramen. The kitchen is open, so you’re watching your ramen and the ingredients come together right in front of you.

It tends to be busy, but you still feel comfortable sitting there; it’s just a great, casual spot. I’ll either get tonkatsu ramen or yuzu shoyu ramen. The shoyu they use is a white soy sauce. When I was in college, I studied Japanese and I worked and lived in Japan for three months, where I was first exposed to shoyu in a cold ramen during the summer. You can have it cold or hot, but for me it’s very nostalgic.

I think Amanda is a brilliant chef and a really superb person. She and her team are just constantly inventing and pushing our level of understanding of what you can do with vegetables and building our appreciation for how exquisite a vegetable-centric meal can be. Amanda has also been a pioneer and a committed advocate of the no-tip model. She pays her staff to really recognize the group effort of both the front- and back-of-house. You really feel the way that the whole team works together, and she’s maintained her commitment even when other restaurateurs have sort of given up on it.

They offer a single tasting menu, so you really feel like you’re on a curated, thoughtful culinary journey. The restaurant has one Michelin star; I frankly believe that it deserves at least another one.

My most memorable meal during COVID was on Valentine’s Day. It must have been 2021 and everything was still outdoor dining: You either had to sit outside or take it to go. My husband and I and two friends had a Valentine’s Day meal at home from Dirt Candy. It was so thoughtful the way that the whole meal was presented. We had to assemble things ourselves, but the deliciousness and the fun of it was so memorable and really gave us some joy in an obviously challenging time.

Amanda was also one of the founding members right from the beginning, of what started as just a group of chefs and restaurateurs coming together at the very beginning of COVID. It was very clear that restaurants were going to be some of the hardest hit businesses and this group, which I joined several months later, became the Independent Restaurant Coalition. Our group went on to successfully lobby the federal government for nearly $28 billion in aid for independent restaurants and bars. Amanda was one of those people from the get-go who was not only looking to keep her own restaurant and her people afloat, but at the forefront of thinking about the entire industry. She’s changing the whole game and fighting the good fight while also putting out exquisite food.

For me this is just so New York in the way that we all operate in these tiny, cramped spaces, making do with all of these physical constraints that we have, and still putting out something at the highest level. In this case, it’s cocktails.

I love places that are low-key and understated, not pretentious, but also excellent and operating at the highest level. There’s no menu. You have to have a conversation with the bartender and talk to them about what you’re looking for. They’re going to come up with their own thing.

Attaboy reminds me of Russ & Daughters in a way, even though it’s different, but primarily the fact that you have to have a conversation to get to the place where you are getting the food or the drink that you want. There’s a moment where you’re interacting and having a conversation with the person who’s going to make it for you. Friendships evolve over things like that. It feels very real to me.

I became friends with one of the owners, Michael McIlroy, in Madrid back in 2018. Both Attaboy and Russ & Daughters did a six-week pop-up as part of a campaign to bring some of the classic New York places over. We just had a great time. Michael loves Russ & Daughters; coming to the cafe or the store for him is his New York. It’s great to have this mutual appreciation of what we both do. We’re always rooting for each other.

This is a very casual, tiny Venezuelan spot. It’s not really a restaurant, because there’s really just three seats out of the window, but the owner is behind the counter all the time putting out delicious arepas. My go-to order is the arepa with chorizo, black beans, cotija cheese, and green sauce. He also makes fresh juices, including a delicious passion fruit juice. Some people don’t know that I’m a Russ on my father’s side, but my mother is Colombian. Venezuela and Colombia are neighbors and there’s a lot of similarity between the food. So, for me, having a glass of passion fruit juice really connects me to my Colombian side.

It’s on Ludlow Street, so it’s kind of equidistant between Russ & Daughters Cafe and the shop. The irony of working in and around food, at least for me, is that very often, all of a sudden, I’ll realize that it’s two or three o’clock and I haven’t eaten, so I’ll go and get an arepa that’s made fresh right there. It’s the perfect quick bite because it’s delicious and filling and it’s made with corn flour, so it doesn’t leave you feeling sluggish or down.

This has been on the Lower East Side on Orchard Street since 2007. That tells you something about the staying power of Cafe Katja. They’re a contemporary Austrian and American spot. It’s warm and cozy. The casual neighborhood vibe of it is complemented by excellent food.

The lighting is perfect; it’s cozy but you can still see the person you’re with. Equally important, you can hear the people you’re with. It just feels so real to me: the people who work there, the people who go there. One of the two owners is always there, and they’re just so present and hands on. They’re frequently the ones welcoming you and running the food. I think that’s why you see so many regulars. It’s a real neighborhood mainstay. One of the owners, Andrew Chase, I’ve known for years. I met him because we were both involved with the Lower East Side Partnership, which is the group of residents, business owners, and landlords that all work together for the betterment of the neighborhood. Andrew has been genuinely involved and puts in the time and effort to make the Lower East Side better and better. He’s a real neighborhood fixture.

One of my good friends is Annie Polland, the president of the Tenement Museum, also a Lower East Side institution, and Cafe Katja is one of those great spots that we like to go to together. Their sausages are delicious. They do great fish. Chicken schnitzel, obviously. You can’t have an Austrian spot without great draft beers. It all goes together.

I lived in France for a year and I’m a real Francophile. For me, they nailed the bistro, in the food, the design of the space, the attention to detail, the casual sexiness of it. But, it also doesn’t feel fully French or American. It just kind of is what it is. It’s the kind of place you don’t get tired going back to. You can go there at 7:30 in the morning or 10:30 at night. It gives you different things throughout the day.

The restaurant is on the ground floor, the corner spot obviously, as the name implies. The Nine Orchard Hotel is relatively new, but it’s a historic building; it used to be the Jarmulowsky Bank. It just makes me really happy that this gorgeous historic building that was sitting dormant for so long has been revitalized in such a tasteful, considered way that has been so additive to the neighborhood.

I get a similar feeling being in Corner Bar that I do in Russ & Daughters, which sounds funny, but I think it’s because I love places where you feel like you’re a part of living history. You’re not in a museum; it doesn’t feel stale or stagnant.

I love a good seafood tower. I love mussels, and their tartare is really good. It’s not something I would typically order, but they do it really well.

If we had talked a month or so ago, I would have said Wildair and Contra. Contra just closed after 10 years [Editor’s Note: Contra will reopen soon as Bar Contra]. Both of them are the brainchild of and driven by chefs and best friends Fabián [von Hauske Valtierra] and Jeremiah [Stone]. I met the two of them over 10 years ago when we opened our restaurants right around the same time.

Contra was the first to open, and we were right across the street from each other. I was standing out in the street in the cold running after people to tell them that we were trying to open Russ and Daughters Cafe, trying to get their signature for our liquor license. They came over to introduce themselves. At that point, they were just waiting to get their gas turned on. From the beginning, I’ve just been impressed by how talented they both are, but it doesn’t go to their heads. They’re so hardworking and nice.

Wildair is more of a small plate, open kitchen experience. I’m just so happy to have them in the neighborhood.