I was alerted to the activation of the Central Park Reservoir Fountain by Maureen Peck, and I decided to take a look, as well as seeing E86th St. Papaya King has been a feature of the landscape since 1932 but I wonder for how much longer? Good hot dogs but they try to misslead you into believing that you are drinking papaya juice. It is actually about 5 gallons of papaya pulp, 25 pounds of parlac (dried milk powder with 33% butterfatt and water, mixed up in a 50 gallon mixer. Tasty though. Inside are posters touting the virtues of hot dogs and papaya juice. You hear that Marlene Dietrich's favorite food was a combination of hot dogs and champagne. Yuck. A long time employee told me that a certain Billy Dubendorfer worked here from 1976 to around 1981. I wonder if this was the same Billy Dubendorfer that I went to school with?
Most of the places that gave the area its unique ethnic flavor are gone to make way for the bland upper east side. My parents bought their first furniture in the USA in the shade of the Third Ave El. Cafe Hindenburg, Cafe Geiger and the Kleine Konditorei are gone as well as Kerekes ( a Hungarian newsdealer who could speak every east European language like a native, many butchers and bakers, shops lile Lekvar by the Barrel, Paprika Weiss, Chechoslovak Praha, The Yaegerhaus, Barney Google's cavernous beer hall. We lived on E 83rd and York when Barney Google's closed down. It was the favorite destination of participants in the St Patrick's Day Parade. You never saw so many REALLY pissed off REALLY big Irish guys in kilts as they discovered that their favorite watering hole was gone.
The pace of destruction is quickening. I had not been here for a year and half a block has been flattened to make way for another luxury high rise condominium. Why is it that they never replace the unique businesses that give the area its charm? Is New York going to turn into a high rise version of Duluth?
No comments:
Post a Comment