Saturday, June 5th, 2010—Bar 146
Day 146—Friday, June 4th, 2010
The Papaya Dog in Penn Station
Okay, it’s Friday night and as usual I’ve kind of hit the wall this week from work and bar-crawling. I really don’t feel like doing the meet and greet thing in a bar tonight, but I have to do something. Last Friday turned out okay, but it started as a bit of a disaster, if you didn’t see that post, here’s a link: Last Friday’s post. I really just feel like having a few beers and chilling out, but that’s tough to do on a Friday night in Manhattan. Then I remembered a post on a website I just discovered, it’s called I Lush NY and it’s done by two guys, Todd and Adam and they write about bars and beers. I like the site and will be using it to discover places I didn’t know about (don’t worry guys, I’ll give you credit when I do) and tonight’s the first night they get some credit here.
I looked at their list of cheap bars and at the bottom was this post:
Papaya Dog (in Penn station)
32 ounce beers served in a big gulp...
what's it like? although papaya dog isn't really a bar, you will fine a lot of drunks here. This a great place to grab a giant beer to pregame before a night out on the town. i took my girlfriend here on my first date and she is still dating me true story.
That sounds perfect for tonight. And since they included it on a list of bars, so can I! Besides, it serves giant beers (I bet they’re cheap too), have great hot dogs (LOVE the Papaya Dog) and I have always bemoaned the fact that you can’t get a beer at one of them. So I thank Todd and Adam for sharing this information. I don’t know which one wrote this, but the fact that he took his girlfriend on a first date cracks me up! I need to drink with these people, maybe I can get them out on a bar crawl with me one of these nights. Anyway, Penn Station is minutes from where I work, so it’s off we go!
New York City on a Friday night, Penn Station is right over there.
Squeeze and Cheap Trick? I gotta get tickets for that!
I got tired of waiting to try to get a full shot of this sign without people in it, so here we are at Ylvania Station.
Everybody's in a rush here, I hope it's calm at the Papaya Dog, I just want to relax.
Hate, hate, HATE the Rachel Ray!
And here we are, the Papaya Dog, it seems calm in here.
They have several sandwich combos here.
But I came for the hotdogs which are the best in town, but then I found a special treat I ordered which I'll reveal later.
Beer! This is the only Papaya Dog in town that has beer!
"Bartender" Ramy serves up a 32 ounce beer along with my special treat, to be revealed later.
Lots of tables and few people, just what I needed for the night. Peace and quiet!
Here's the spot I chose to make my spot.
And now I reveal the special treat, a corn dog! i've never seen one for sale in New York. This is a nice relaxing night.
There's a flat screen TV in the corner for viewing pleasure.
The corndog is delicious!
And the beers are going down smooth. Here's beer number three. 32 ounces for four bucks, you can't beat this deal! A perfect Friday night. This is like my Fortress of Solitude.
I love my little spot here and I'm really relaxed and copping a nice little buzz.
Maybe a little too relaxed. Goodnight everybody!
Review
Okay, if you’re jonesing for a brew in Penn Station, skip the cheesy T.G.I.F. and head directly for the Papaya Dog. Some may argue that it’s not a bar, but it’s got beer, it’s got chairs and someone to serve it to you, so I declare it the finest bar in all of Penn Station. Maybe I’ll start some sort of petition to get Mayor Bloomberg to sign. Anyhoo, there’s decent seating, it’s a great place for people watching and photo taking and the perfect Friday night spot for me to kick back, have a few 32 ounce beers and a corn dog and chill right the fuck out.
Thanks to I Lush NY for posting the location on their site.
The Papaya Dog in Penn Station
Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue—Penn Station/Madison Square Garden
(between 31st and 33rd St.)
3 References
Reader Comments (22)
i like this one! it's marty unplugged! that corn dog makes me hungry! LOL!
Looks like a great stop along the way.
I don't know if it was the Corn Dog that filled you up
or the 3-32's! Cheap Trick and Squeeze sounds like a great Double Bill.
Hope they take that pairing on the road a bit.
Maybe you can do a co-crawl with the I Lush NY guys some evening.
Ummmm, my son had a corn dog for dinner last night. He's four.
:)
OK now I wasnt friggen corn dog.. I haven't had a papaya doggie in years... more reason to head back east soon...
then again I havent had a decent bagel, pretzel or corn beef on rye in years....
I love hot dogs:)
That looks like the best beer and dog place ever!
and you sooooo better go to that show Marty.. no excuses!
Marty, you are so nice & fair play! those guys are making a web site similar to yours and when most of people would shit of them and not give credits, you are friendly, propose to make a crawl together and gives credit, I like your attitude! (oh ok, that sounds just normal to do it, but how many people in this planet never do what is "normal"?)
I don't get what is corn dog? corn with a saussage?
Oh man that beer looks great. We are having a hell of a heatwave here in Miami and 32 oz of beer would go down in two minutes flat. I see that Squeeze is still around and that 80's song is in my head now, tempted. Glen Tilbrook is still there,, he may have a long way to go to beat Rob Grille of Grassroots as "longest lasting lead singer" to stay in the band when everyone else leaves.
Three 32-oz. brewskis?! You're my hero, Marty Wombacher.
@Zioum Zioum: A corn dog is a hot dog covered in corn meal and then deep fried. It's horrible for you and delicious, especially with mustard.
@Al: I met Rob Grill once in Decatur, Illinois and he was amazed I knew who he was!
Looks like a great stop over joint for a bite and a belt before a game or a show!
A nice relaxing Friday stop, you deserve it, Marty! That beer and corn dog look great, I haven't had a corndog in years, I gotta go find one and a 32 ounce beer!
ditto barfly...ditto ms. ray but she is easy on the eyes...someday she may do a drew tire swing fur playboy...you know like with a corndog or sumthing...i lush ny looks cool ...not as hard working as the "365'...nowhere near "99 beers"...KOC
rr
Hey Marty......I'm out on on bail and thought i would make a quick comment before i get thrown back in the cell! Looks like my kind of stop in N.Y.C.! Good food, Cheap,Big Beers and no assholes to fuck with your serenity! Cheers and congrats for the Kenosha radio spot! Keep it going Motherfucker!
Professor Dungpie! Welcome back, Motherfucker! If I go to Kenosha you going to come and meet up? Nice to see you back here!
That place is amazing. Everything within a quarter mile of Penn is crazy overpriced, yet a 32 oz beer is 4 bucks!
Do they let you camp out on the floor there because accommodation looks expensive in NY and I could easily stay there a while with those size beers at them prices!!
Rock on Cheap Trick but who are the Squeeze? I hope i haven't offended anyone with that last question.
Corndog! Beer! Love this place already. Also, you gotta be rich to enter 365 bars in one year alone. Wow.
@Tim: Here's Squeeze, they're a good band: http://wwws.us/rfuk
@bambooska: I'm not rich, I'm spending all my money from my night job doing this plus people have helped out with donations and buying things from the 365 store.
hey! professor dungpie!! cool to see you back how are you doing?????!!!
Thank you Todd and Adam for the great suggestion.
Great post Marty...that beer looked awfully good.
I am not much into hot dogs anymore as I am keeping my girly figure.
@Tiki Bar Susie: I lost my girly figure years ago, so I'm throwing the dogs down!
Marty! This looks like the best place so far! Kind of like a baseball game, without the annoyance of a baseball game, just the food and the beer! I can dig it!
It was a nice and relaxing break from the bar crawl, Ash, nice to hear from you!