6. Russ & Daughters (est. 1914)
Though Russ & Daughters started as an appetizing shop in 1914, it’s since expanded to open three sit-down cafes, one around the corner from the shop on Houston Street, one at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and another inside the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side (currently closed). It all started with Joel Russ, who immigrated from Poland in 1907 and started selling herring out of a barrel to his fellow Jews on the Lower East Side. He finally saved up enough money to open a brick-and-mortar store in 1914. Having no sons, he enlisted his three daughters to help him at the shop and in 1935 made them full partners and changed the shop’s name to Russ & Daughters.
Now run by the fourth generation of the Russ family, the original shop still looks much the same as it did in 1914 and sells delicacies like smoked salmon, caviar, bagels, bialys, challah, babka, rugelah, matzoh ball soup, and of course herring. The cafes offer many of the same foods, just with the option to sit down and eat.
7. Dante (est. 1915)
Reborn in 2019, Dante (originally known as Caffè Dante) is a Greenwich Village stalwart. When it originally opened on MacDougal Street in 1915, the area was an extension of Little Italy and Caffè Dante was frequented by Italian immigrants who came to sip espresso and reminisce about home. Over the course of the following decades, it became a haunt for the Beat generation, musicians like Bob Dylan, and actors like Al Pacino and Jerry Seinfeld.
When Australian couple Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson took it over in 2015, they spruced up the decor but kept the original owner’s photos. They also seriously upped the cafe’s cocktail game, earning it the number one spot on the World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2019. Come for the vibes, stay for the Garibaldi.