{"id":28213,"date":"2024-10-27T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T07:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=28213"},"modified":"2026-04-12T07:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T14:52:11","slug":"the-sopranos-the-final-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/10\/27\/the-sopranos-the-final-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sopranos: The Final Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

Very few (if any) final scenes have sparked as much discussion and controversy as the final Sopranos<\/em> scene.\u00a0 Tony Soprano and his family are meeting for dinner at Holsten’s in Bloomfield, New Jersey, the fictional mob wars between the New York and New Jersey families have ended, and we think all is well.\u00a0 Their favorite local restaurant is Holsten’s, which Tony mentions in the series.\u00a0 Is it a real place?<\/p>\n

Absolutely.\u00a0 And it’s good.\u00a0 We found Holsten’s and had lunch there (it’s at 1063 Broad Street in Bloomfield, New Jersey), and I was surprised.\u00a0 The place has to be the most famous small local restaurant in the world, and you’d think with the kind of publicity they’ve had, they wouldn’t be very good.\u00a0 People from literally all over the world (more on that in a minute) find their way to Holsten’s.\u00a0 But it is good.\u00a0 Very good, in fact.\u00a0 More on that in a minute, too.<\/p>\n

I was able to park directly in front of Holsten’s, and as I was getting out, I noticed a young couple scrambling to cross the street and get into the restaurant.\u00a0 I had an idea why, so I slowed down a bit.<\/p>\n

Okay, to make what I’m going to show you make sense, I need to tell you a bit about that last scene up front.\u00a0 In the photo below, there are three Holsten’s locations you need to know about.\u00a0 \u00a0The photo below shows them as you enter the restaurant.<\/p>\n

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As you enter Holsten’s, there’s a long lunch counter and booths at the back of the restaurant. Arrow B points to where the likely hitman initially sat. Arrow A points to the small hallway that leads to the restrooms, where the shot that took out Tony was fired from. Arrow C points to the booth where Tony sat, enjoying his onion rings, when he got whacked.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That young couple racing to get into the restaurant?\u00a0 I was right.\u00a0 They were hustling to grab the booth all the way in the back, where Tony, Carmela, and AJ sat.\u00a0 In the Sopranos<\/em> scene, Tony was flipping through the mini-jukebox on the table.\u00a0 Today it’s the only table in the restaurant that has that little jukebox.\u00a0 They used to be at every table in any New Jersey diner.\u00a0 Notice the sign denoting the booth, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"We sat one booth up from the Sopranos’ booth and we started talking to the young couple I mentioned above.\u00a0 They were doing the same thing we were: hitting locations that appear in different Sopranos<\/em> episodes.\u00a0 \u00a0Sue told them we were from California.\u00a0 \u00a0They told us they were from (get this) Poland!\u00a0 Yep, they flew all the way from Poland to do what we were doing.\u00a0 These folks were serious Sopranos<\/em> fans.\u00a0 Check out his tattoos:<\/p>\n

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This is beyond being a mere fan, I think.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Impressive. Christopher, Tony, Silvio, and Pauly. And before you ask: Yes, I know these are fictional characters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You no doubt realize by now that I am a serious Sopranos<\/em> fan. But I don’t have any tattoos denoting any of the characters in The Sopranos<\/em>, and I have no plans to get any.<\/p>\n

We had a lunch, and (as mentioned above), it was surprisingly good.\u00a0 I had a tuna melt.\u00a0 We ordered a plate of onion rings.\u00a0 Just minutes before he got whacked, Tony Soprano said they were the best onion rings in the state.\u00a0 I’ve sampled a lot of onion rings in New Jersey, and I think he was right.<\/p>\n

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The menu was simple. Our lunch selections were excellent. The people from Poland thought so, too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We left feeling pretty good.\u00a0 I grabbed one more shot with my cell phone.<\/p>\n

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A parting shot: The Holsten’s storefront.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About that last scene:\u00a0 The audience never does find out exactly what happened.\u00a0 Tony looks up as Meadow (his daughter) is entering the restaurant, and the screen and the sound suddenly go to a silent black.\u00a0 Most people thought their TVs had gone out.\u00a0 I did.\u00a0 Then the credits start rolling by, and we realized that one of the best series ever, all six seasons of it, were over.\u00a0 It was brilliant.<\/p>\n

Take a look, remembering the locations I pointed out in that photo above.<\/p>\n