Russ & Daughters Café

This café from the owners of Russ & Daughters is part coffee shop and part cultural shrine, a high-low confluence of vinyl booths and Carrara-marble tabletops, borscht and caviar, seltzer and Champagne. Design elements echo the legendary East Houston Street shop down to the light-box wall shelving and signage, and the open kitchen’s spotlit salmon-slicing station, which might be considered the heart of the operation. The menu, too, is an elaboration, not a reinvention. The appetizing shop’s bagel sandwiches are reconceived as plated snacks, and smoked fish is served not only in the expected platters, but in an assortment of egg dishes and inventive salads. Weekday breakfast and weekend brunch are great times to go. The drink list is a perfect marriage of soda fountain and modern mixology, ranging from an egg cream made with Kings County Distillery chocolate whiskey to a caraway-infused-vodka Bloody Mary with rye croutons