Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Reader report: Empanada Mama opening at the former Papaya Dog space on 14th and 1st

Multiple readers tell us that Empanada Mama is opening an outpost on the NW corner of 14th Street and First Avenue (the former Papaya Dog space). 

A worker at the under-renovation space told EVG regular Pinch that an an "empanada" place is opening here... a commenter went on to specify that it will be an Empanada Mama, which, if true, will make the fourth location in NYC, including the one at 95 Allen St. 

Papaya Dog shuttered here with 0.0 warning last fall, ending a 16-year-run of slinging cheap eats from this corner.

10 comments:

  1. Great news! Love their creative filings. Hope they stick around for a long while.

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  2. Love it, great addition. Would be nice if the city would clean up 14th street. Hurting way too many businesses.

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  3. “ Would be nice if the city would clean up 14th street.” That would by Carlina Rivera. Mayor Adams came down to visit and explain that to her — didn’t work.

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    1. What are you talking about? That's the council person job? Her job is to demand it from the city, the mayor, the police, sanitation etc, but she can't actually execute it.

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  4. It's a too small of a space for Empanada Mama full restaurant, so maybe mainly a to go counter?

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  5. Good luck to them, but I've seen so many businesses come and go at that location that I think it may be cursed.

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  6. Cursed? The hot dog place was there for 16 years?

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  7. And it was a Blimpie for at least 40+ years before that.

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  8. I thought this location used to be a mechanic shop (or something of the sort) many years ago too.

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  9. "It's a too small of a space for Empanada Mama full restaurant, so maybe mainly a to go counter?": What's an Empanada Mama full restaurant? For years, our family loved the Hell's Kitchen Empanada Mama on 9th Ave. near 51st, and that one is (was?) tiny. It had a counter that sat about 6, plus about 3 four-top tables squeezed tight. My sense is their other locations are tiny, too. The Papaya Dog space is a decent-sized corner store, probably at least as big as a standard Empanada Mama.

    When we lived in the suburbs and bridge-&-tunneled into the Big City, we'd often bring Hell's Kitchen Empanada Mama empanadas back to Westchester--they're fantastic.

    Next door to the Hell's Kitchen Empanada Mama on 9th Ave. was a check cashing place that once made international news. A couple of Hell's Kitchen old guys' buddy had just died. When his final welfare (soc.sec.?) check came in, the buddies put his corpse in an office chair, wheeled him to the front of the check cashing place, showed the clerk his ID--and tried to cash his check. Unfortunately for them, they got busted.

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