Following is a full transcript of this video.
Taryn Varricchio: Hot dogs are as true to New York as bagels, pizza, and pastrami on rye. But only one spot has been serving their franks with tropical drinks since 1932. The winning combo has spawned many imitators over the years, but tourists, celebrities, and loyal customers still seek out the original. This is Papaya King.
Customer: I've been coming in here since I was maybe 9, 10 years old, and I'm 69 now. But this place has always been tops, and everybody that's from this area or from New York knows about Papaya King.
Taryn: We're in Manhattan, where hot dogs are basically around every corner in the city, and we're gonna head to the place that New Yorkers have been going for practically the last 90 years: Papaya King. But before they were selling hot dogs, they were selling something much different. So, let's go find out.
Papaya King's hot dogs have been called "arguably the best hot dog in New York City" by food icon Anthony Bourdain.
Anthony Bourdain: For me, there's nothing better than a Papaya King to tamp it all down, send me off into the arms of Morpheus properly. It's the gold standard.
Taryn: And praise for the restaurant has led many imitators across the city to serve a similar tropical drink and hot dog combo. But contrary to popular belief, these look-alikes have no connection to Papaya King.
Wayne Rosenbaum: The biggest misconception in New York City, and I deal with it every single day of my life, is that, "Oh you're on 72nd Street." "Oh, you're on 14th Street and 1st Avenue." This is the original Papaya King. A lot of the younger generation has no idea, no clue which is which. They think it's all the same. But I guarantee you, you go to these other places, totally different product.
Taryn: Before Papaya King became a destination for hot dogs, it wasn't Papaya King at all. It started as juice bar called Hawaiian Tropical Drinks opened by Greek immigrant Gus Poulos.
Wayne: He stumbled upon the most unbelievable melon in the world, the papaya melon, on a vacation in Cuba. He came back from Cuba and he said, "Oh, my God, I have to open up something in New York City that I could use the papaya fruit." So Hawaiian Tropical Drinks was born. We are the first juice bar in America. All these other guys came 65 years after us.
Taryn: But two years later, a customer walked in wanting more.
Wayne: 1934, a customer came into the store and said, "What do you have for lunch? I'm starving." And he's like, "Well, I brought some frankfurters from home." The guy's like, "I'll take them!" And the rest is history. So in 1963, it was renamed Papaya King, no longer Hawaiian Tropical Drinks, and they focused more on the combination of salty, sweet, and fresh fruit. So it's kind of like devil and the angel in the same location.
Taryn: Hot dogs are delivered each morning at 6 from a local factory. Papaya King employees wearing bright-yellow shirts, undoubtedly made to match the shop's signature neon sign, ready themselves for the lunch rush.
Wayne: On an average Monday through Wednesday, we go through 250 to 300 pounds of hot dogs a day. All right? It's 10 to a pound. So 3,000 hot dogs a day. On the weekends, we go anywhere from 4,000 hot dogs a day to 4,700 hot dogs a day. A day.
Taryn: Wayne says the most popular order is the Original combo: two hot dogs with relish, sauerkraut, or New York onion sauce. And a papaya drink.
Honestly, from the moment I opened that box, I could smell the vinegar from this sauce, and I'm really excited. That makes me more excited to try it. It's a snappy hot dog, for sure. I really liked the sauce because it was like, zingy was the way that Wayne described it to me, kind of tangy, you really get that vinegar.
Although hot dogs are the assumed star of the show, Papaya King's signature juices are just as popular.
What about this combination of juice and hot dogs do you think is so appealing to customers?
Wayne: Well, you have a salty and a sweet kind of concept, so our drinks are fresh, they're natural, it's a digestive, as you can see on the machines. Sounds crazy, having a beef hot dog with a fresh juice or tropical drink. But it works.
Customer: Because it's the best combination for me. I enjoy it every time, and it's enough. I'm not too full after I get out, I'm just right.
Customer: The food is a staple, it's not just a snack. And the papaya is great with vodka.
Taryn: All day, we've been talking to people and they, for the majority, said that they get their dogs with the New York onion sauce and they always get the papaya drink. That was unexpected. I expected it to be a thinner juice, but it's actually a frothier fruit drink. But I think it's honestly refreshing, creamy, and not too heavy. And it does, like every other person has said, complement the savory hot dog. I got the sweet drink. Clearly the combination works, place has been around for 87 years.
Customer: We're from Amsterdam, and we came to Papaya for the hot dogs because we heard from Google it was the best, so. [laughs]
Taryn: What do we think?
Customers: Awesome!
Wayne: This kind of thing appeals to everybody. I have politicians, I have Martha Stewart, Woody Allen, de Blasio comes all the time. We have a ton of doormen, firemen, school kids, older women, people that have been coming for generations, generations of families. It appeals to everybody. Everybody still eats hot dogs, no matter what they say out there.
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