• Russ & Daughters

  179 E. Houston St., 212-475-4880

  This should come as no surprise to fans of what generations of New Yorkers aptly call �appetizing,� but Russ & Daughters is Sunday Brunch Central. If the 92-year-old Lower East Side landmark were stripped of its mouthwatering and nose-tingling trappings�the retro-quaint displays of halvah and licorice, the bins of fresh bagels and bialys behind the counter, the herrings and cream sauces, the proprietary cream cheese�would its ravishing smoked salmon still taste as delicious? We think so. In fact, we know so, having subjected the cool-under-pressure counter help to all sorts of niggling questions and demands for samples. Depending on your mood (and sodium tolerance), there’s a smoked salmon here for every taste: Mild, silky Gaspé. Complexly flavored Scottish. All-purpose Norwegian. Lightly smoked and relatively lean wild Pacific King. For our money, though (and this stuff ain’t cheap), the quintessential smoked salmon�the only kind that your exacting Jewish bubbe considers the real deal�isn’t even smoked. It’s simply brine-cured salmon, a.k.a. lox, and its righteous, unabashed saltiness fairly cries out for a bagel and a schmear of cream cheese, which is, after all, what �appetizing� and Sunday brunch are all about.

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