2008
We soon learned that the spot would be taken over by the growing Liquiteria chain. The place has been covered in plywood since, but I just took a peek inside.
It looks...like a Liquiteria. No more vats of papaya and pineapple juice. No more hot dogs glistening on the grill.
Instead of guys in red bowling shirts slapping coleslaw on your dog, you'll find a team of "cleanse coaches and ambassadors" striving to "personalize your Liquiteria experience" at this "health and wellness oasis."
Instead of two hot dogs and a papaya drink for less than five bucks, you'll get one papaya smoothie with Liver Kidney Lymph Detox mixed in for more than five bucks.
We can say that "things change," that New Yorkers today are more interested in juice cleanses than hot dogs, that Liquiteria and Gray's Papaya are (were) both local chains so what's the difference. Each point is debatable, but all of it ignores the simple fact that Gray's shuttered not due to any lack of love for hot dogs, but to another insane rent hike.
We have one Gray's Papaya left. Like all our small businesses, it is completely unprotected from a similar fate.
It's time to stop the insanity--let's Save New York.
"cleanse coached and ambassadors" & "personalize your Liquiteria experience"
ReplyDeleteThat's a start I guess, but I refuse to set foot in this place until they promise to 'offer our guests a fresh interpretation on the personal consumption experience'.
Also, does anyone else feel like the name Liquiteria is a cynical and relatively transparent attempt to cash in NYC history points it didn't earn by linking to Danceteria and Gaseteria?
ReplyDeleteI grew up eating at Gray's and Papaya King and even then I think we all knew that was not 100% fresh juice in that cone shaped cup. I don't know how I am as healthy as I am when I think of what I used to eat and drink. I would rather know what is in my drink and I liked Liquiteria on 11th Street & 2nd Avenue. For years that was the only Liquiteria location but recently they exploded into a mini chain. Also, one of the former Liquiteria managers has The Juice Shop with a few locations. Maybe it is time for "juice wars" and I would only hope that competition will bring the prices down, but sadly it will not. It seems the new demographic that has settled here does not mind paying $8 for a container of juice.
ReplyDeleteCleanse THIS Liquiteria!!!
ReplyDelete"I grew up eating at Gray's and Papaya King and even then I think we all knew that was not 100% fresh juice in that cone shaped cup"
ReplyDeleteUm...
Everybody knows that cone didn't hold one hundred percent fresh juice. It was fruit concentrate, sugar, added vitamins, and butyric ether, the "fruity" chemical. That's why it has the fizzy, slightly chemical taste you loved; that's why you're nostalgic for it; that's why it's comforting and rekindles childhood memories; that's why poets and writers and hardcore bands and filmmakers portray it. They're bad for your health if you eat 457,347,818 of them a day.
Liquiteria extracts fresh juice from fruits, removing most of fruit's health benefits, and charges twelve bucks for it because their marketing department dupes stupid people into believing it's somehow as healthy as yoga and they might wind up looking like Miranda Kerr. That's what you're paying for.
If you want fruit, eat fruit. I still can't believe that we live in an age where medical information is available by typing "Mayo Clinic" into a search engine, and yet we still throw so much money to "Liquiteria" because we believe it "detoxes" us that they can afford to pay ten times the rent a hotdog shop could shell out. Here's a secret the Harvard MBAs don't want you to know: inside your body, there's this thing called a "liver," and it "detoxes" everything for free.
So the business plan of "Liquiteria" is this:
1) Force consumers to believe they don't have livers.
2) Sell them pretend livers as expensively as possible without alienating the public.
3) With they money they give you, pool it, invest it, and lead a higher quality of life than your clientele can afford, which probably includes enjoying hotdogs, which aren't dangerous if you have a liver.
#Freedom #Feelingblessed
@Anonymous 4:54pm: I cannot be all things to all people, not on this board nor anywhere else, and as long as I am over 18 and pay my own rent, I will eat and drink what I like.
ReplyDeleteThat sign .... very ironic that the quality of Gray's offerings were better than those of Obama yet they are gone and yet he remains..
ReplyDeleteAnd both are junk that're bad for your health, cause and leave a bad taste in your mouth