On January 10, 1999, we saw for the first time how the gangster Tony Soprano, to the transgressive rhythm of the chords of the song Woke up this morning, emerged from the Lincoln Tunnel driving his car to access the Turnpike. He was smoking a cigar while traversing some of the most distinctive post-industrial landscapes in the state of New Jersey. Gas stations, factories, car dealerships, gas depots, fast food chains, cemeteries, working-class housing, mansions …
A minute and forty-five seconds later, he arrived at his chalet uptown in the North Caldwell neighborhood. Since then, nothing was the same. And it is that 14 years after the end of the sixth and final season – the last episode aired in June 2007 – it has become one of the most captivating and mythical series on world television.
Many travelers keep coming to New Jersey in search of the iconic landmarks of the series.
So much so, that many travelers continue to arrive in New Jersey in search of the places that were part and gave meaning to its neurotic characters and its eccentric plots.
Where is New Jersey?
With some states of the United States, it happens to many of us like the Americans with Spain, that we lose our position and we do not know how to place them in the place on the map that corresponds to them. New Jersey is an example. Most of us know where New York, Florida or California is, but when it comes to the aforementioned New Jersey, Iowa or Georgia, reasonable doubts arise.
Map of the states of New Jersey and New York
Few know that New Jersey is attached to New York and that only the Hudson River separates them (by the way, there are extraordinary views of the island of Manhattan if you look at the Hoboken lookouts or the Owen Grundy Park in Jersey City).
It is also not widely known that it is one of the most industrialized, wealthy and advanced states in the country and that it was the first to sign the bill of rights. It is also home to one of the largest Italian communities in the country. And that, precisely, is the root that leads us to the acclaimed series of Italian-American gangsters on the HBO network.
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Tony and Carmela’s house
The Caldwell neighborhood in northeast New Jersey is considered one of the best areas in the state. There, on a 6,000 square meter plot, the Soprano family lived. In four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a guest house, a large garden with a swimming pool and two garages, many of the sequences of the 86 episodes that make up this portentous story were developed.
David Chase, the creator of the series, grew up in a small apartment in the Clifton neighborhood, to move years later to North Caldwell, which is why he surely chose this location to stage the Soprano home. In 2013, when a heart attack killed James Gandolfini, the actor who played Tony’s character, the ramp where he picked up the newspaper in his bathrobe every morning was filled with flowers and hundreds of gifts of admiration. Today, the house is for sale for $ 3.4 million.
The house of ‘The Sopranos’
The capital of the ‘diners’
One of the most important elements in the life of the characters of The Sopranos it is his irrepressible passion for eating. They never seem to be satiated. Their stomachs work 24 hours a day. They open the refrigerator an average of two or three times per episode, copious dinners with family or friends or impromptu snacks at the office are recurring. They do not tire of moving their jaws at all hours: the cannolis (typical Sicilian dessert), pastrami sandwiches, meat barbecues or the Chicken Cacciatore Carmela’s are some of his victims.
In this regard, New Jersey claims to be the state with the highest number of diners Per inhabitant. These traditional restaurants are, by the way, very common settings in the series: the New Skyway Diner, in South Kearney, where Christopher Moltisanti was shot, for example, or the Searchlight Diner, where he met with the FBI.
New Jersey claims to be the state with the highest number of diners per capita
The diners They are a classic in American culture. A cultural icon. The bar where they serve the typical steaming American coffee, eggs with bacon and toast, pancakes, the burgers… In New Jersey the typical thing is the Taylor Ham sandwich, with pressed ham, egg and cheese.
The butcher shop or meeting room
Continuing with the feasts, there are two very common settings in the series: one is the refined Italian restaurant Nuovo Vesubio in the style of the 80s of Artie Bucco, Tony’s childhood friend, and the other is Satriale’s, a butcher shop where the band gangsters met on the terrace to dispatch their routine tricks. It’s a very suburban image, a kind of lookout where you could find out about everything that was going on in the bowels of New Jersey.
Cured hams, pork ribs, pink sausages, and skinned chickens hung in the window. A very subtle metaphor for Soprano universe. This scenario was originally set in an actual butcher shop in the town of Elizabeth, on Newark Bay, on the west bank of the Hudson. Soon after, the producers discovered an abandoned car store in Kearny and transformed it into the fictional Satriale’s Pork Store and used that site for the remainder of the series. By the way, at the end of filming, it was demolished.
New Jersey is known as The Garden State
The striptease
As we said, New Jersey has a lot of charm. Perhaps overshadowed by the ubiquitous New York, it doesn’t look quite as good as it should. But in reality, it is much more authentic, it is more real. It is the residence of thousands of people who work in New York and cannot afford the cost of rent in the center of the city.
It is known as The Garden State (the garden state) due to its many parks, gardens and nature reserves. The exteriors of The Sopranos they have captured and reflect with great fidelity and authenticity what New Jersey is. It is estimated that more than 500 locations were used outside of the study.
The Bada Bing, the strip club, is actually a nightclub on Lodi’s Route 17, the Satin Dolls
The Bada Bing is one of the exteriors that appear the most in the different episodes. This is Silvio Dante’s strip club (another member of the band), which is actually a nightclub on Route 17 in Lodi, a neighborhood to the north. Its real name is Satin Dolls, which already existed before the series was even conceived. Interestingly, the name Bada Bing comes from the phrase popularized by the character of Sonny Corleone in the film The Godfather.
Beaches
The eastern part of New Jersey borders the Atlantic Ocean. There are more than 200 kilometers of coastline and beaches, from Perth Amboy to Cape May Point. This area is known as Jersey shore. Many tourists (especially New Yorkers) flock there to sunbathe and cool off in the sea.
One of the ‘Jersey Shore’ beaches near Asbury Park
Atlantic City, the beaches of Cap May or Ocean City are some of the most frequented places. In the northern part of this coast we find Asbury Park, one of the locations where – at the end of the second season – Tony Soprano’s strange dreams were set.
Asbury Park is a find. An exciting combination of beach and rock. It has been repeatedly named one of the best vacation destinations in the United States. It is a villa with one of the parquet promenades (boardwalk) nicest in the state.
The Stone Pony has served as a launching pad for some of the greatest musical legends
Once there, a must-see is The Stone Pony, a legendary concert space that has served as a launching pad for some of New Jersey’s biggest music legends like Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa or Jon Bon Jovi. Nothing more and nothing less to the device.
Getaway to the Plaza hotel in Manhattan
As I mentioned before, the series starts from a route from the island of Manhattan to Tony Soprano’s house. Only the Hudson separates New York from the state of New Jersey. Through the car windows we see how the Eiffel Tower or even the Twin Towers pass by (only in the first three seasons, before they were collapsed). We can perceive that closeness to the Big Apple at various moments in the series.
And they are not only connected geographically, but also criminally. You have to think that The Sopranos are associated with the New York family, led by the frenzied character John Johnny Sack Sacramoni. But it is especially interesting season 5, when Tony decides to take refuge in a suite luxury at the Plaza hotel in New York overlooking Central Park. Or the fact that Carmela likes to take her teenage daughter Meadow every year to celebrate her birthday in style.
Exterior of the Manhattan Plaza hotel
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