Grab a schmear and a seat and enjoy cutting-edge video at Russ & Daughters (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Russ & Daughters
179 East Houston St. between Allen & Orchard Sts.
Through Sunday, December 11, free
212-475-4880
www.russanddaughters.com
www.jamescohan.com
Since 1914, the Russ family has been selling high-quality appetizing on the Lower East Side, specializing in smoked and cured fish, herring, caviar, specialty spreads, and bagels and bialys. Now being run by fourth-generationers Joshua Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman, the New York City landmark, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, is trying something a little different. No, don’t get worried that they’re messing with their many delicacies, which include the whitefish and baked salmon salad combination, mustard and dill herring, smoked salmon tartare, chocolate bagel pudding, and such sandwiches as the Meshugge (sturgeon, sable, and smoked salmon on a bagel or bialy with cream cheese), the Oy Vey Schmear (chopped liver and sliced pickles from the barrel on a bagel or bialy), and the Fancy Delancey (smoked tuna with horseradish dill cream cheese and wasabi flying fish roe on a bagel). Through December 11, the institution is presenting “Videobytes,” a series of avant-garde works by seven experimental film and video artists, curated by Russ & Daughters regular James Cohan, who runs his eponymous gallery in Chelsea. In a flat-screen monitor in the front window looking out on Houston St., you can catch Harry Smith’s “A Strange Dream,” Robert Breer’s “Blazes,” John Baldessari’s “Six Colorful Inside Jobs,” Gordon Matta-Clark’s “Tree Dance,” Kate Gilmore’s “Built to Burst,” Susana Mendes Silva’s “Ritual,” and Hiraki Sawa’s “did I?” totaling more than an hour of video dating from 1946 to 2011. If there’s a long line for food, we suggest taking your number and waiting outside while watching the wide-ranging shorts, or else you can check them out while enjoying your sandwich on the bench. The videos will run continuously twenty-four hours a day, so you can also stop by late at night while bar hopping or before or after a flick down the street at the Landmark Sunshine. To us, there’s not much better than a Meshugge sandwich and cutting-edge video, the Lower East Side answer to dinner and a movie (a bite and a byte?).