Diners can celebrate 85 years of one of the strangest but best food pairings you can find in New York City — a hot dog and a papaya juice — on the cheap this weekend.
Papaya King, the originator of what became something of a New York fast-dining genre, will offer 32-cent hot dogs and papaya drinks Friday and Saturday at its three local stores.
The restaurant debuted in 1932, when Greek immigrant Constantine Poulos started importing papayas into the U.S. to make and sell juice, and it and grew when he added hot dogs (best enjoyed with the restaurant’s addictive red onion sauce) to the menu. It spawned competitors, including Gray’s Papaya, which was started by a former Papaya King proprietor.
In New York, you can find Papaya King at 179 E. 86th St. in Manhattan and 6 Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn. There’s also a location in Las Vegas.
