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Visiting Uncle Junior’s Headquarters from The Sopranos

May 24, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

This is overdue.
Tony Soprano

At the driver’s seat of a long black Lincoln, a well dressed man peruses a magazine. Behind him pulls a red SUV. A large figure emerges, walking purposefully in shiny brown wingtips.

This is how one of my favorite scenes from The Sopranos begins, as Tony makes small talk with Mikey Palmice before delivering him a beating he won’t soon forget. Mikey and his boss, Corrado “Junior” Soprano, recently attacked Tony’s nephew Chris and killed Chris’s friend over their penchant for hijacking Uncle Junior’s trucks. After dispensing with Mikey, Tony walks into Junior’s headquarters, the Sit Tite Loungenette, to try to reason with him.

I always thought the Sit Tite Loungenette looked perfect, a true piece of the 1960’s for a man like Junior, a man of that time. Yesterday, I went in search of this piece of TV history.

This location used for the Uncle Jun’s headquarters is in Jersey City, NJ, and today the building is a Chinese restaurant called Asian Kitchen. Aside from the signage, the exterior looks exactly the same as in the series. It was thrilling to be on the same sidewalk as Tony and Mikey’s fight, gazing at the exact building I had seen so many times in one of my favorite shows.

Where Tony gave Mikey the beating of his life

The interior of the building appears to have been heavily remodeled, with a different layout and flooring. Most of the building is a kitchen and only the very front is accessible to place orders. Still, getting a chance to see it was awesome.

You see the Sit Tite a second time in the series, when Tony comes to tell Uncle Junior he wants him to be the boss of the family after Jackie Aprile’s death. With a determined look, Tony loads his pistol as he enters, unsure of the reception he’ll get from Uncle Jun.

If you’re in the area, check this great spot out!

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Welcome to Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero’s Chop Shop

May 19, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

A heavyset man sits in a seat pulled from a junked car, reading Waste News. Around him are cars in various states of disassembly. A Mercedes pulls up…

This is Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero’s body shop from The Sopranos, Cleveland Auto Body. It features in one of my favorite episodes, where Pussy and Tony commiserate on the difficulties of rearing teenagers. Later, after Pussy is killed for being a government informant, his wife Angie takes over the body shop and nearly becomes a mobster herself.

The location for Cleveland Auto Body is on Cleveland Avenue in Harrison, NJ, just outside Newark and a short walk from the location used for Satriale’s. I had the opportunity to visit this Sunday, excited to see where these scenes really took place.

Today, it is Mavis Discount Tire, and has gotten quite a facelift. The old Cleveland Auto Body sign is gone, along with the junk you saw in The Sopranos. In its place is a clean, modern tire shop.

Here’s how it looked in season 2:

And how it looks now:

Across the street, you can see the exact same houses as in the Sopranos scene. They don’t seem to have changed a bit. It was a lot of fun to see the same backdrop as some of my favorite characters!

Seeing how Tony pulls into a bay directly across from the houses above in this episode, I think this is a new building. I don’t see bays facing in that direction now. But, it’s hard to say for sure.

The neighborhood is halfway between industrial and residential, with a newer, upscale apartment building nearby. Between the classed-up auto shop and the new neighbors, the neighborhood is a little fancier than it was in Big Pussy’s day.

It was a great time seeing the exact same spot where some of my favorite scenes took place!

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This is Satriale’s From The Sopranos

May 17, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

They sit around tables covered in checkered cloths, sipping espresso. The conversations are hushed. As you approach, they fall silent.

This is Satriale’s, the butcher shop that served as headquarters for Tony and his crew in The Sopranos. These scenes were shot at a storefront in Kearny, New Jersey, a working class, mostly Spanish town near Newark. Yesterday, I went there to see what was left of this iconic spot.

Unfortunately, the storefront was demolished shortly after the end of the series. There were plans to turn it into condos, but as of today it’s a township parking lot. I can’t believe they didn’t preserve the building and sell tickets!

Here’s how it looked in the series:

And how it looked yesterday:

Even with the iconic building no longer there, it was still a thrill to stand on that sidewalk where my favorite characters had so many memorable moments. The building to the left remains the same, and I could also look across the street to the same streetscape Tony and his crew saw so often. It looks almost the same as it did in the series.

Here’s how it looked then:

And now:

Just a couple blocks away is another Sopranos filming location, and this one looks exactly the way it did in the show.

Richie Aprile’s office sits just two blocks south of Satriale’s on the same street. You can see this storefront when Richie chases Matthew Bevilacqua away after he tries to kill Chris.

Here’s how it looked then:

And now:

The building appears to be a private home now. If you zoom in, you’ll see the same yellow sign for China Star restaurant that was in this scene over 20 years ago.

It was a lot of fun to see the Soprano family’s home turf! Even though Satriale’s is no more, I’d still recommend checking out the neighborhood!

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Welcome to Sal “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero’s House from The Sopranos

May 10, 2021 tremendousblog Leave a comment

Birds call in a cemetery in the early hours. Two men appear on a balcony. One hands the other a newspaper. Their faces are grave.

This is the backdrop for a classic scene of The Sopranos. Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero brings FBI Special Agent Skip Lipari onto his balcony, where Lipari questions him about a high profile murder. Both suddenly clam up when Pussy’s wife comes out with the trash.

The lonely calling of the birds and Pussy looking out over a graveyard make a haunting image. The headstones, so close to Bonpensiero, subtly foreshadow his murder later in the season, when Tony Soprano finds out he’s an informant.

Big Pussy’s house is in Jersey City, NJ and I had the opportunity to visit yesterday. While we don’t see it from the outside in the series, when Tony visits in season 1 you can clearly see the same metal door and brick pillar as above.

The street is a dead end and Pussy’s house borders the vast Holy Name Cemetery. The house is upscale…evidently Pussy’s heroin business paid well! The cemetery itself seems like something out of The Sopranos, with the profusion of Italian names on the markers.

On the way home, I stopped by another Sopranos filming location, this one from season 6. Tony and Paulie are on the run as the FBI investigates a decades-old murder. On Kennedy Boulevard near Pussy’s house, Silvio Dante breaks the bad news to Tony that the FBI has found the body.

The liquor store has had a facelift since then, but the streetscape is still quite recognizable.

It was quite the thrill to see where these great scenes really happened!

Dig into these posts for more on The Sopranos:

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This platform lets me diversify my real estate investments so I’m not too exposed to any one market. I’ve invested since 2018 and returns have been good so far. More on Fundrise in this post.

iHerb

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