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.)