Locations¶
Almost all of it was shot in New Jersey and New York, on location, in real places. That's a large part of why the show's world feels solid.
The essentials¶
The Soprano house¶
North Caldwell, New Jersey. A real private home whose exterior, driveway, and pool appear throughout. Interiors were built at Silvercup.
It sold in 2019 after being listed with the show's history as a selling point. It is somebody's house. Do not go and knock on the door.
Chase himself grew up in North Caldwell, which is not a coincidence.
Satriale's Pork Store¶
101 Kearny Avenue, Kearny, New Jersey.
The crew's headquarters, and probably the show's most recognizable exterior. The production dressed an existing building and used it for the entire run.
It was demolished in 2007, shortly after the series ended, and the site was redeveloped. The pig sign was auctioned. Nothing remains.
The Bada Bing¶
Satin Dolls, 230 Route 17 South, Lodi, New Jersey.
A real, operating go-go bar, used for both exteriors and interiors, and open to the public throughout the show's run and for years after. It changed hands and names in the years since, following a dispute with state liquor authorities, and its current status is worth checking before travelling.
Holsten's¶
1063 Broad Street, Bloomfield, New Jersey.
A genuine ice cream parlor and restaurant, open since 1939, and the location of the final scene.
It is still open, still family-run, and entirely aware of what it is. The booth where the last scene was shot is marked. They sell merchandise. The onion rings are on the menu.
After James Gandolfini died in 2013, the booth was closed off with a reserved sign and flowers for a period, which is the single most New Jersey thing in this entire wiki.
The rest¶
| Place | Location |
|---|---|
| Dr. Melfi's office | Interiors at Silvercup Studios, Long Island City |
| Vesuvio (pilot) | Manolo's, Elizabeth, NJ |
| Nuovo Vesuvio | Punta Dura, Long Island City |
| Barone Sanitation | Kearny / North Arlington industrial area |
| The Soprano compound interiors | Silvercup Studios, Queens, NY |
| Livia's house | Verona / West Orange, NJ |
| Green Grove retirement community | Various NJ sites |
| The Pine Barrens ("Pine Barrens") | Harriman State Park, New York — not the actual Pine Barrens |
| The lake house ("Soprano Home Movies") | Upstate New York |
| Junior's house | Belleville, NJ |
A note on "Pine Barrens": the episode is set in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and was shot in Harriman State Park in New York, largely because the production needed reliable snow. This irritates New Jerseyans and is one of the show's very few geographic cheats.
The title sequence route¶
Ninety seconds, and it is a real drive you can retrace:
- Lincoln Tunnel, exiting into New Jersey
- The New Jersey Turnpike toll plaza — Tony takes a ticket
- Newark: the industrial waterfront, the refineries, Pulaski Skyway
- Jersey City and the cemeteries
- Out through Bloomfield and the suburbs
- Arrival in North Caldwell
The World Trade Center appears in the side mirror in the first three seasons and was removed after September 2001. Some streaming versions carry the original.
The Then & Now video retraces the whole route and is the best single record of how much of it is gone.
Visiting¶
Holsten's is the one. It's a working restaurant, it welcomes visitors, and the food is good. Order the onion rings; everyone does.
Kearny and Lodi are ordinary North Jersey towns and there is not a great deal to see now that Satriale's is gone.
Do not visit the North Caldwell house. It's a private residence and the owners have asked repeatedly.
Organized bus tours have run for years and remain the easiest way to see the spread of sites without irritating anyone who lives at one.
Why it matters¶
The show could have been shot in Toronto or on a backlot, as most television of the era was. Shooting in the actual towns produced the thing the series is most praised for and least able to fake: specificity.
The strip malls are real strip malls. The diners are real diners. The industrial New Jersey in the titles is the state's actual working landscape, and the distance between it and the lawn in North Caldwell is the whole story. See America in Decline.