Linda lives in New Jersey, and offered to show me around, as well as help me get to Six Flags Great Adventure to ride the monster Kingda Ka rollercoaster. We emailed back and forth a few times, and I asked her about some of the locations in the TV series The Sopranos.
For those of you new to my story, I am a big fan of HBO TV series The Sopranos, (“Modern day morality tale about New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, as he deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life.” www.imdb.com), and have written about it in several blogs previously:
7th April 08: ALife4Sale – 76 days to go! Sopranos DVDs
20th April 08: ALife4Sale – 63 days to go! Sopranos theme tune
10th July 08: 100goals100weeks – A goal achieved today!
So Linda got very organised, and picked me up in downtown Manhattan, and drove us through the Lincoln Tunnel, the exit from which is the first couple of scenes of the opening credits, and out into the gritty NJ world of The Sopranos!
She had arranged a fantastic circular tour around some of the series locations. We were disappointed to find that Satriale’s Pork Store had gone, nothing there now other than a sign to indicate that “The Sopranos luxury condominiums” would be coming soon.
The Skyway Diner was a wonderful lunch stop. To me, it looked like the most American thing I have ever seen! I couldn’t help myself, and had to order the cheeseburger deluxe and coffee, and would have had apple pie too if I could have managed it after the huge cheeseburger!
There were a couple of other places to see, including one of the churches used in the series, a bakery where in series 1, Chris shoots one of the staff member’s toes off, but Linda had saved the best for last!
Satin Dolls was used in the series as Tony’s unofficial headquarters, go-go bar Bada Bing. It really is a go-go bar, and it looks almost exactly as it does in the series! Linda suggested that we could go in if I wanted, and there was no holding me back.
The interior was dark and noisy, semi-clad girls danced on the stage, and beer-swilling customers threw dollar bills. We walked right round to where Tony usually sat, and ordered a beer from the scantily dressed waitress. Sat in Tony’s seat was a burly-looking guy who was obviously the manager, dealing with a couple of the girls, a wad of bills in his hands! Brilliant!
He just laughed when I asked if I could take a photo inside! “No way, buddy!” Hmm, I thought not!
In the evening we joined Linda’s brother Steve, and his wife Gina, and went out for dinner. Italian, of course!
