Papaya King, the extremely popular chain of stand-up hot dog restaurants in New York City, is coming to Los Angeles. New York has many imitators — like Gray's Papaya — but Papaya King is the original, selling quick-service, affordable hot dogs and tropical fruit drinks.

L.A.'s location, on Wilcox Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, will be the first one to open outside of the Tri-State area (there are also Papaya Kings in Clifton, NJ, and LaGuardia Airport). We spoke with Papaya King's Director of Operations, Wayne Rosenbaum, who talked about the expansion. “Basically, we teamed up with some partners out in L.A., the SBE corporation, and Sam Nazarian,” said Rosenbaum. “He loved the product.”

He explained that Nazarian, “basically took the lead on it,” while also adding that, “I actually ship hot dogs to the coast every week.”

Rosenbaum says that their target opening date is April 1st, but with construction still taking place, that could get pushed back slightly, to the first or second week of April.

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