“I come in for the chaos,” joked the man standing next to us in the crowd at Russ & Daughters (179 East Houston St., New York, NY; 212-475-4880; russanddaughters.com). We came for the bagels. On this Saturday morning, the long, narrow shop with a display counter along one side was jammed with people. To be fair, the “chaos” was of the controlled variety. Customers were in an almost jovial, anticipatory mood. It felt like the ticket line at a rock concert. Clearly, part of shopping at Russ & Daughters is the cheek-by-jowl camaraderie.

There is a method to the madness. You take a number from the ticket machine at the door, just like at the supermarket deli. Then you try to squeeze to the back of the shop to wait your turn. It’s less a pirouette to get out of the way than a slow sideways shuffle. In a shop known for its smoked fish of many finds, it felt a little like the constant movement and swirl of a school of minnows.

The shuffle and slide provides ample opportunity to observe the mechanics of a classic Jewish deli. Fresh tubs of whipped cream cheese emerge from the back room. An expert slicer wields a long knife to cut nearly paper-thin lox to layer on bagels.

The establishment dates back to Joel Russ, a Polish immigrant who sold smoked herring from a pushcart in the Lower East Side starting in 1904. By 1914, he’d saved enough to open an “Appetizing” shop and in 1920 moved to the present Houston Street location. In 1933, he renamed it Russ & Daughters after his three daughters. The shop claims to be the first in the U.S. to use “& Daughters” in its name.

So many choices….

In New York linguistic convention, “appetizing” as a noun basically refers to almost anything you’d eat with bagels — mainly cold salads, a range of smoked or cured fish, and the beloved cream cheese.

When it was finally our turn, we were faced with the usual overabundance of choices. What type of bagel? What did we want on it? When we said we wanted a plain bagel with a schmear of cream cheese, the server began a litany of additional toppings. Chopped onion? Tomato?

We resisted and were rewarded with one of the best tasting, most tender bagels we’ve ever eaten. It was filled with a thick schmear, bringing to mind the quote engraved on a spreader we have at home: “Sweet dreams are made of cheese.” Devouring it on a bench was a delightful rite of passage.