Appetizing

"An appetizing store has the mingling odors of salt, smoke, pickle and sweet," says Federman, who ran Russ and Daughters from 1978 until he retired three years ago. "So, all of that coming together makes for a unique sensory experience."

Joel Rose, writing for The Salt, tells the story of Russ and Daughters, an appetizing store on New York's Lower East Side. We love how this family-run delicatessen has become a world famous institution. They opened on the Lower East Side in 1914, and specialise in smoked fish and bagels of the highest quality.

Meal with a View

We’ve been working with Jack Graham to develop the curriculum for our School Breakfast Programme. His programme, Year Here, gets young grads to work in frontline jobs - homelessness shelters, care homes - and design solutions to social issues. This year they’re living and working in Poplar, one of London’s most deprived areas – and they invited us to cook up a kick-off dinner in Poplar’s brutalist Balfron tower.

We made roasted Jerusalem artichoke soup, Scottish coley roasted in the bag with Za’atar, fennel, olives and tomatoes – served up with Persian rice, and roasted whole cauliflower with tahini.  After that English Apple and pear crumble, with homemade vanilla custard.

The view up there was something special. 

 

On Stokey

"The Stoke Newington of the present era is a bright and animated, yet in parts restful place." The Metropolitan Borough of Stoke Newington official guide, 1928.

Stoke Newington Church Street is where we began our search over a year ago, and I couldn’t imagine opening anywhere else. We’ve been spending afternoons in Hackney Archives, digging out old maps of the area, and drainage plans (a precursor to planning permission). We asked @historyofstokey about the site - a post from him coming soon. 

We also found out Alan Denney has been photographing the area since the Seventies. The building next door to our site used to be Recorder House, the headquarters of the North London Recorder publication, with its beautiful handmade sign.