September 10, 2011

I’ve been burned out this week and haven’t gone out in a couple nights, so I thought I’d go out and have a MAD adventure tonight. The only problem was I couldn’t think of a destination to go to, so I turned to my old friend Google. I decided I’d type in “New York place”  and go to the first place that came up and here’s the result:
So it’s off to the New York Palace, they’ve got a bar, maybe we’ll get a swizzle stick out of this trip!

Okay, out into the night. We'll take the subway to midtown.

Fuck, being a complete idiot and out of habit, I hopped onto a downtown train and here we are at 23rd Street. I briefly thought about crossing the street and getting back onto an uptown train, but you know what? Fuck it, I'm so burned out from this week, let's just see what we can find to do on 23rd Street. Time to improvise.

Alright, let's see what's shaking on 23rd Street on a Friday night in New York City.

Dunkin' fucking Donuts, definitely not going in there.

Here's a man passed out in a taco shop. That's how I felt all week!

I just thought of a place to go to, it's right down the street.

The Chelsea Hotel sign is still unlit and closed. I wonder what the new owners are going to do to it. Time will tell.

And here we are, I thought we'd have a drink at the bar in the El Quijote restaurant. This is a classic place and it's been on the block for 80 years.

Let's go inside, I'm dying for a drink.

I love this place and the food is great here, but tonight it's packed with a bunch of loudmouth after-work yuppies. Ah, fuck it, there's one seat at the end of the bar, I'm going to snag it.

A long shot of the back of the bar.

What a great old cash register.

I accidentally took this flash shot and the bartender ran down and told me I can't take any photos in here.

So it's back into the night I go.

The good news is, The Chelsea Papaya is a block away...

The bad news is they don't serve beer in here.

And it all happened on 23rd Street, on a random Friday on September 9th. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

Further reading: Wikipedia, 23rd Street Associaton Inc. and Discover Flatiron.

You Might Also Like: Dusty Springfield, Dustin Hoffman and Dust.

Four Other 23’s
23 Enigma
Lostpedia
23 Skidoo
The Independent

Cause it seems in London Town,
There’s just no place for a street fighting man.

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Chelsea Papaya @11:23 pm
Chelsea
On Wednesdays I go out and find late night workers to take photos of. So far I’ve gone to Penn Station and took photos of people in action and last week I covered people selling food from food carts on the street. Tonight’s is going to be a little different. The other night while walking home I looked over and noticed that there’s a psychic in a building who was still open at 11pm. I’ve only been to a psychic once since I’ve lived here and that was for my “99 Beers” and admittedly I did it for a goof and a story. Tonight I’m actually curious to meet someone who makes their living by being a psychic. I don’t know if this psychic will let me take photos, if not I’ll have to wing it and do something else. I could’ve called, but then that would take all the fun out of it. Let’s go, I bet she already knows we’re on our way.

Okay, here's the place I was going to go. I called before I left work and then at the last minute I asked if I could take photos for my blog and she said no. She's up on top of this building let's go see her sign.

It's really windy out and her sign is blown over. Wouldn't you think she'd know this? And whoops, I accidentally wiped out her phone number. No pictures, no free advertising for you!

Luckily, last night on my way home when I was crossing over on 23rd Street, I saw another psychic's store front sign and they were open late. Let's check it out, but I don't have a good feeling about this.

Okay, here we are at psychic number two. Let's see if we can pull this off.

Okay, I buzzed the buzzer and some guy sounded annoyed and said they were closed. Here's a little psychic hint for you people, if you don't want people ringing your buzzer, TURN YOUR FUCKING SIGN OFF! I knew this wasn't going to go good...hey, maybe I'm a psychic. Wait...I see a vision...in my future...

A hot dog!

There's a Chelsea Papaya on the corner! I know I said I was going to only cover these places on Mondays, but what the hell, this new blog is all about improvising, so let's go check it out.

Like all good Papaya stands, this one never closes. The bad news is there's no beer here.

Here's the front window, let's go see who's in there.

Look at this vision of loveliness in the window! Let's go in and say hi.

Her name's Tiffany and she stopped by for a quick snack. She was not only super-cute, but super-nice. Nice to meet you Tiffany!

Before we get in line, let's check out some of the signage in here.

They have shrimp in here, I don't know if any other Papaya offers this.

They have corn dogs here, but since there's no beer...

I'm going to go with the specialty of the house, the all beef hot dog for just $1.50.

Abdul is the gentleman behind the counter and he readies the dog and slathers some mustard on it.

And baboom! Here it is in all its Papaya glory.

Let's walk over to the eating area and try it out for size.

It looks just like the vision I had, amazing!

And the dog is gone. Delicious. Let's take another look around before we leave.

Ketchup and mustard, side by side, the Papaya's version of Ebony and Ivory.

Here's the papaya vats for their drinks. You know in all my years of eating at Papaya joints, I've never had a papaya drink, I'll have to try one at the next stop.

Okay, one last glace at the neon dog in the window...

And it's out into the night we go. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

Papaya Rating
The Chelsea Papaya is a nice Papaya stand, and the hot dog there was delicious. The staff were friendly and there were some nice people milling around. No loud drunks were in here and Charlie Sheen is on the other side of the country so everyone felt at ease in there, even though it was after hours. I’ll rate this one above the Hell’s Kitchen location because that one is closed now, but below the Penn Station on because the Penn Station one has beer. So, here’s my Papaya order so far:

3. Hell’s Kitchen Papaya because it’s not there anymore.
2. Chelsea Papaya, it’s clean, people were nice in there, but there’s no beer.
1. Penn Station Papaya...they’ve got beer!

Stay tuned to see who wins in the ratings of the Papaya Wars only here on MAD!

Chelsea Papaya
171 W 23rd St.(between 6th and 7th Ave.)
212-352-9060

Further reading: Cheap Ass Food, Grub Street and The Butcher Blog.

Nightcap

Like some kind of witch, with blue fingers and mittens,
She smells like the cat and the neighbors she sickens.

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Bonus Art From Jaws

MAD commenter Jaws has been M.I.A a good portion of this week. It seems some hackers hacked his computer and infected it with a nasty virus. Jaws is back and sent in this piece of art demonstrating what he'd like to do to those nasty old hackers! Welcome back, Jaws!