The West Village location of Gray’s Papaya closed suddenly on Wednesday, leaving behind 28 years of memories and howls of outrage from hot-dog-lovers everywhere. A Gray’s location on 37th street also closed a while ago. That means there’s just one more Gray’s in the city — the one at 72nd street and Amsterdam that opened in 1973. At this point, this last location of Gray’s Papaya may be the most iconic budget eatery in the city.
An employee at the 72nd street location said he didn’t know anything about the restaurant’s plans, but there’s no reason to believe it’s in imminent danger. And yet, It’s hard not to think that it’s only a matter of time…
The West Village Gray’s fell victim to a rent hike – owner Nicholas Gray said the landlord wanted $50,000 a month, up from $30,000 — and will be replaced by a juice bar called Liquiteria, Eater reports.
As food critic Robert Sietsema writes:
“A city is defined by its hot dogs, and Gray’s exhibited the real New York terroir. The toppings and natural skin reflected the Germanic origin of the dogs, which were first vended in Coney Island in the 19th century. And the hot dogs of New York City are like no other. The rest of the country mainly likes skinless “ballpark” franks, and no visit to Gotham is complete without sampling one of our own, which are ensconced in a real sheep’s small intestine, hence their diminutive girth. What’s inside the frank? Who wants to know?”
Hang on, Upper West Side Gray’s Papaya! It’s not New York without you.
Good lord, what are these men doing to sweet, innocent Gray's Papaya? https://t.co/ni2xdu3Ggp pic.twitter.com/HSsq6oZnKa
— Eater NY (@EaterNY) January 8, 2014
If someone is dumb enough to pay a greedy landlord $600,000 a year to serve juice…. So be it. But the bubble will burst and the landlord will have another empty store.
Guess they don’t care.
Let’s face it, that whole SE corner at 72nd Street is gonna go at some point. Let’s gobble the hot dogs and papaya juice while we can.
I hope we don’t get anymore on the UWS. Juice bars have now overtaken frozen yogurt as the trend for new stores. Within a couple of blocks on Broadway in the low 90’s you can get juice at Gary Null’s Whole Foods, the cafe in the Equinox and Green Generation. That is just one small slice of the UWS, there are many other juice stores throughout the area. I doubt many of the new stores will survive given the prices of the juice.
Green Generation and the Equinox cafe across the street are the same operators. Yet to see a customer in Green Generation. Tick Toc
Did Gray’s Papaya on East 86th Street and Third Avenue, close too?
I usually stop there when I go to my doctors office. Living on the West Side for over 40 years I have made trips to Gray’s Papaya on 72nd Street, just to bring home franks and Papaya drinks. We need to keep some of the old West Side and not lose the origin of the “Radical West Side” image. Hope that Gray’s Papaya will be able to stay with us.
I think that’s Papaya King not Gray’s Papaya
They COULD move.
Agreed.
I was saw Joel Grey in there.