In the final weeks of my pursuit to find community in moments of food sharing, I reached out to Herman Vargas of Russ & Daughters. After a few emails back and forth - his quick and willing response for such a busy man amazed me- I was using one of my last free days to take a trip to the neighborhood I seemed to spend all my time at school walking through. I got out of the F and realized that the sun was finally warm. It was mid-March and you could finally sit outside without freezing. I was a few minutes early so I bought a knish at Yonah Shimmel. I ate it and sat on the stairs of the park on Houston. I didn’t hear the man playing the saxophone, but heard the usual sounds of skateboards rolling over concrete. I reviewed the notes I scratched at the kitchen table that morning over jazz and coffee, folded it up, and headed to Russ & Daughters somewhat nervously.
I met Herman at the counter as he gave orders to his team in the back. I caught them in a down moment in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, but the hustle of Russ & Daughters didn’t stop. We had our interview while Herman went about his afternoon. Customers came and went, the staff walked back and forth, and I got to know Herman a little better than I had before.
I explain that I’m interested in talking to him about his experience at the store and if he sees food creating a kind of unified community. Herman answers immediately.
Herman Vargas: I would say food is at the core of our relationships, because at that time where you share a meal you get to share ideas, you talk about problems, projects…. But it’s no different from a store, because at a store you get to know people. You know your customers. We call it “the soul” of the store. The food store is alive. This place - the Pop and Mamma store - was also an original source of information. When the customers came and went, it was almost like a way of communicating news, and hopefully good things were spread out.
Jeanne Landers: So that’s really why I’m here. I’m interested in understanding how Russ & Daughters has established itself as a place of community.
HV: Okay well first of all, Joel Russ who was an immigrant from Austria at around 1907, was looking for a better life. Allegedly he came to live with his sister, but he started selling herring on the street in a pushcart. That food was really a survival food. In the early 1900s, the Jewish people living here didn’t speak the language, they didn’t know the Western way of life… so they brought with them their culture of eating salty fish. Russ found that he could sell herring to a lot of older Jews who were just like him. He quickly realized that this was a way to make a living… but as time went by it became a staple. It was something that he dedicated himself to and that he brought his daughter into. They developed a relationship with customers this way. Charging people the right price and giving them the right service… well actually there is a rumor where he would say “if you don’t like it, there’s the door, get out!” - but the daughters were always so charming. The customers were very attached. This whole dynamic between the customers and the Russ family was the “soul”. The “soul” is that experience that food, when it’s done with the right attitude, when you actually spend enough time and energy to make sure what you’re presenting, is something to be proud of, has meaning. It was very important to them to have that herring or the salmon for that matter. Today, we’re very conscious that we actually maintain that and give customers the very best we can because it’s reciprocal. We, in term, get the appreciation (Herman points to a note on the wall saying, “You made my day, my family loved it”) - so it’s more about providing a service that is unique and, to a certain extent, is disappearing. A lot of people go to work and they can’t wait for the day to be over. They don’t want to think about work. I find myself waking up at two o’clock in the morning asking if it’s twelve o’clock because to us, it’s important. I found that there is no such thing as a difficult customer. Most people just haven’t had their needs met. If you go to a restaurant, you want to establish that you want to be taken care of. Most customers want the right service, the right price, the right product, and when you meet them on those three needs, people surrender…. they let you take care of them. I ask my customers, “what do you want”, they say, “I don’t know, you tell me”. This is because we’ve taken care of them previously and they are happy and comfortable that we don’t take advantage of them. We meet their needs. The customers, then, aren’t really difficult.
JL: So how does that relationship change in the way that those customers interact with you?
HV: Well, as a result of that, there is a relationship of gratitude. If you come to the store and someone goes out of their way to meet your needs, then you feel gratitude and you somehow want to give back. There is this bond that’s created in applying yourself and applying values. A lot of times, the customer comes in and doesn’t know what they want; they don’t even know the differences between the salmon. We take it upon ourselves to figure that out. We give them tastes and they discover what they want. They have a good feeling that they like coming here.
JL: So they keep coming back?
HV: Of course, but when they go back home, when they’re eating, they might share the food and the experience with their families. The idea spreads. People come in and say they’ve had the salmon at “so-in-so’s” house and it was delicious. If they don’t know what kind of salmon they’ve had, we give them a taste. We still remain a family business.
JL: I also wanted to talk with you because this neighborhood is changing so much and this seems one of the few businesses that remains true to its roots and its founding identity and family. It’s really been able to withstand such neighborhood change. I find that amazing.
HV: That’s the soul. In the seventies, this area was very depressed. There was a lot of crime and prostitution… buildings were falling down. Russ & Daughters had been here since the beginning of the century so even through all of the many challenges and ups and downs of the neighborhood - I remember when I started working here in the eighties, it was tough. A lot of customers were worried about their cars parked outside because there were people stealing cars. But they still wanted to come. They followed their initial experiences. And here we are now. This area is trending. It’s trendy, it’s one of the hottest parts of Manhattan. We believe we’ve stood the test of time. That continuity has made us so attractive over time. We do what we know works. I should add that many of us come from many different backgrounds. You could say that I am of the most “diverse”, culturally…. Yet, here, there is such a unique diversity and sense of family. I was very much attracted to that family and that environment when I was younger too. You could see that the store provided food for families. I come from a very small village in the Domincan Republic. Almost everyone knew each other growing up. Every Friday we would share a meal. So, what was happening here was very similar in my mind to what was going on back at home in the D.R. It brings people closer. I have a very diverse culture. At the core, we are all the same. A lot of people who come here - Chinese, Japanese - are different from the Jewish culture but somehow they find themselves identifying with this food exchange and the experience. Family, food, and service. That’s what it’s about. Whether you present it at home with kids and your family or friends or whether you present it from behind a counter. Those three principles are essential.
JL: And very present here…
HV: We are very conscious about that. I thank you for the interview and I will have the same conversation with that lady there. This is what we want to do, this is what we have done, and this is what works. It takes commitment and sacrifice. It doesn’t happen without an intense dedication to wanting to meet someone else’s needs.
My first encounter with a customer… I was eighteen but I looked like fourteen. And this food is very expensive and unique to the culture. In every Jewish home, every family is competing with someone to determine who has the best food. They want the best. They have it in their homes and they give it to their friends. So, when I was barely eighteen looking like fourteen, I said “can I help you?” And this customer goes, “you have Puerto Ricans working here?” What he meant was, “what does this guy know about Jewish food?” This guy’s thinking, he’s gonna serve me my very expensive lox? So I totally understood what he was saying. When I said, “can I help you?”, he said “not in a million years.” I thought, one day, you’re gonna be waiting for me. I’ll help you see that I really enjoy what I do. I really wanna make sure that you get the best product that is brought to you in the best way. I cut the salmon as thin as possible and I learn about the product. I became known as the “boychik”, which was a comrade who grew up with you in the same neighborhood. Everyone baptized me with that name and I became the boychik behind the counter.
Overall, this business gives you the opportunity to be yourself, to embrace what is presented to you, and then to apply your own special talent or technique so that you can enhance what we do and enhance the overall experience. This is something that is attractive. Food is a very unique experience that can be used to enhance your own relationship to family and others. Meal time is an opportunity to share life.
At the conclusion of our interview Herman asked me if I’d like a sample of anything. He gave me some of Russ & Daughters’ homemade whitefish salad. I still go back for it today. Though I love the salmon, it is perhaps my favorite item on their menu…
* I learned that Herman retired in the fall of 2019, just a few months after I spoke with him.