About three years ago, the Brooklyn Navy Yard announced that Russ & Daughters—the 105-year-old Jewish “appetizing store” mecca—would become the anchor tenant in the refurbished Building 77, which would be transformed into part-public food hall and part-manufacturing hub for local NYC businesses. Now, that transformation is complete: the new Russ & Daughters location officially opened inside the Navy Yard this week with all the lox and rugelach treats you’d expect.
Technically speaking, the fourth generation family-owned business has had an ongoing soft opening for over a month at the new location at 141 Flushing Avenue, but Monday marked the official opening day. “Over the past two years we have designed and built out a 18,000 square foot base of operations, which includes our bakery, nationwide shipping facility, kitchens, a beautiful appetizing store, and (future) private events space,” the company said in a release about the new space.
As Grub Street writes, the extra room was one of the biggest selling points for Niki Russ Federman and her cousin Joshua Russ Tupper, who have run the business since 2010. Over the last five years, Russ & Daughters has evolved its business strategy from being primarily a retailer to also being a maker—bringing “most of the cooking and baking, apart from the fish-smoking, in-house”—in order to maintain quality control. People who visit the new location can stop next to the glassed-in bakery next door and “watch the bagels dance around in their boiling vats.”
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Gothamist
