Gray's Papaya at 4 am

Like I said before, I have really good friends. They tend to accept my habits of wanting to go to random restaurants with 0 reviews, and my tendencies to make them wait as I photograph not only my food, but theirs as well. With that said, they're also sometimes morons. Case in point, the clown who walked into my photo of the storefront up top. Now, I like really like hot dogs (the fact that back to back posts are of wieners is just coincidence though). When I was a kid, my parents would always cook 2 packs of them, just because I'd always complain that there wasn't enough for 4 people. Hm, maybe I can blame my parents for being overweight through college. In any case, when my friend asked if I wanted to go to Gray's Papaya at 4 am (which in retrospect was an incredibly stupid proposal), I reluctantly folded and said yes. Now for the food...



Backstory, freshman year I went to Gray's once. I walked there from 116th with someone I lived with at the time. The recession special was $2.75 and got you 2 franks with a special house drink. Fast forward to 2010, and all of a sudden, the recession special is $4. Plus tax. That's not even a special! Anyway, I couldn't not get food just because I was slightly irked at the price change, so I went with the default order, with a banana daiquiri as my drink of choice. The hot dogs themselves were okay, certainly not "the best in NYC" or whatever slogan they use. They had appropriate snap from the skin, and were just salty enough to make me glad I had a drink. The toppings of sauerkraut and onions kind of destroyed it though. Mainly the onions. The additional amount of sauce slathered over top made the thing taste more like mustard and tabasco than meat, and if I were to ever order again in the future, I would pass on the onions. Eh, what can I say, I wasn't all that impressed. Then again I know many Papaya dog loyalists who will inevitably hate this post, I just don't see why.