Satriale's Pork Store
| Satriale's Pork Store | |
|---|---|
 The building used in the show, seen in 2007. | |
| Series | The Sopranos |
| First appearance | "46 Long" |
| In-universe information | |
| Type | Italian meat market |
| Address | 101 Kearny Avenue |
| Location | Kearny, New Jersey |
| Owner | DiMeo crime family |
| Purpose | Legitimate business front |
Satriale's Pork Store is a fictional establishment on the HBO series The Sopranos.[1][2][3][4] During the 1970s, the pork store was taken over by Johnny Soprano, a capo in the DiMeo crime family, when Francis Satriale failed to make payments on a gambling debt. It became a regular hangout for current members of the DiMeo crime family.
The filming location was in Kearny, New Jersey. Satriale's Pork Store was recreated at 42 Market Street in Paterson (40°54′54.6″N 74°10′33.9″W / 40.915167°N 74.176083°W) in 2019 for the filming of The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos.[4]
Location
Satriale's Pork Store is a meat market in Kearny, New Jersey. Although a mob-owned establishment, Satriale's runs a legitimate business, selling a variety of meats, pork, and sausage, along with deli-style sandwiches. The store has a coffee bar that sells pastries and espresso, as seen in several episodes. In the large storefront windows hang cured hams and trussed pig carcasses, coils of pink-and-beige sausages, including a denuded chicken with its beak still in place.
In the episode "Pilot," Silvio Dante tells Tony, Paulie and the gang that his wife Gabriella Dante sends him to the store regularly because she thinks it sells the best capicola. FBI Agent Dwight Harris, who investigates Tony Soprano and the members of his family throughout the show, loves their veal parmesan sandwiches.
In the episode "Toodle-Fucking-Oo," Silvio tells Richie Aprile that Tony no longer discusses mob business directly with his capos, using Silvio Dante as an intermediary, and never discusses mob business at Satriale's anymore because of FBI surveillance. This angers Richie. Satriale's is prominently featured in the video game The Sopranos: Road to Respect.
The interior walls of the storeroom where Emil "E-Mail" Kolar is murdered by Christopher Moltisanti have black and white framed photographs of classic actors and entertainers, like Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Edward G. Robinson and Dean Martin, hanging on the walls. These actors were known to portray anti-hero mob characters and in some cases associated with real mobsters during their careers.
Satriale's is possibly based on Sacco's Meat Market located at 806 3rd Avenue in Elizabeth, New Jersey which served as the unofficial criminal headquarters of "Uncle Joe" Giacobbe, a veteran made man in the DeCavalcante crime family.[4]
Production
The pork store was called Centanni's Meat Market (40°39′30.6″N 74°12′16.2″W / 40.658500°N 74.204500°W) in the pilot episode, an actual butchery in Elizabeth, New Jersey.[5] After the series was picked up by HBO, the producers leased a building with a store front in Kearny, New Jersey[5] which served as the shooting location for exterior and interior scenes for the remainder of production, renamed Satriale's Pork Store.[5] After the series ended, the building was demolished.[6]
The owner intended to sell bricks as souvenirs.[7] The location inspired a deli of the same name in Sydney, Australia.[8]
Important events that occurred in Satriale's
- Tony Soprano witnessed a violent encounter involving Mr. Satriale and his father, leading to his first panic attack later that day.
- Christopher Moltisanti shot his first victim, Emil Kolar, in the rear of the store.
- Silvio Dante and Paulie Gualtieri beat Ariel, the son-in-law of Shlomo Teittleman in a room on the upper floor of the store and debate with Tony whether or not to murder him.
- After an explosive argument where Tony yells at Christopher and Brendan Filone about their successful hijacking of a Comley Trucking transport truck, a trucking company that operates under the "protection" of Tony's uncle Corrado Soprano, Brendan is picked up and thrown out of the back room and into the kitchen where he rolls over a table of fresh meat chops. He made the statement that Tony is really the boss of the family since Jackie Aprile Sr. became the "Chemo-sabe", a reference to Jackie's cancer. This greatly angers Tony.
- Christopher and Furio Giunta disposed of Richie Aprile's remains by using the meat saw and butcher's knives to dismember his body.
- Tony and Ralph Cifaretto are forced to make a decision regarding Jackie Aprile, Jr.'s future.
- Finn revealed to Tony and other capos and associates his encounter with Vito two years prior when Vito was giving oral sex to a security guard in a car. Finn's story played a pivotal role in determining whether the rumors of Vito's sexuality were true.
- Tony meets with Bobby Baccalieri to discuss the takeover of Corrado Soprano's businesses and where the DiMeo crime family stands at that time.
- Silvio Dante and Carlo Gervasi murder Lupertazzi family soldier Fat Dom Giamello after he makes a series of jokes concerning Vito's murder and the sexual preferences of New Jersey men.
- Tony Blundetto gives Silvio Dante, Paulie Gualtieri, and Vito Spatafore back massages and angers Tony Soprano by speaking back to him in front of his fellow mobsters.
- Agent Harris plies Tony for information on suspected terrorists and warns him about the attempt on his life from Phil Leotardo.
- Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero dresses as Santa Claus for the neighborhood children and gives out toys every Christmas. During one Christmas Eve Salvatore becomes drunk and temperamental angering some of the children. It is later surmised that Bonpensiero was wearing a secretly hidden FBI wire on his person during the festivities. After he is murdered, Bobby Baccalieri assumes the role of Santa Claus.
See also
References
- ^ ""Sopranos" filming locations draw mobs of fans". Reuters. June 5, 2007 – via www.reuters.com.
While most of the well-known locations on the show are actual commercial establishments, Satriale's pork store in Kearny has never existed...Signage and the large pig that sits atop the brick-faced building were put up only for filming, and the site that saw its share of sit-downs and dismemberments will soon be whacked itself: Kearny officials say the town's planning board has approved an application from the owner to turn the property into condominiums.
- ^ Strum, Charles (March 7, 1999). "Location, Location; 'The Sopranos' Tunes In to a New Jersey Nobody Knows (Except for the Millions Who Call It Home)". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
All you need, in this case, is Satiale's, a pork store, which occupies center stage in one episode. Satiale's is one of the few exteriors that doesn't really exist. It is an empty double storefront at 101 Kearny Ave., in the southern part of town. But for one episode, it was a thriving Italian meat market, its interior supporting columns painted the colors of the Italian flag.
- ^ "9 places The Sopranos made famous in NJ". North Jersey.
The pilot was filmed in a real pork store in Elizabeth, but "Sopranos" then turned the empty Kearny storefront, once an auto parts store, into Satriale's... "After the pilot was done, we were looking for the pork store location. We scouted with David [Chase] for a few days, and when he saw the one we ended up with in Kearny, he said, 'That's the pork store.'"
- ^ a b c Kuperinsky, Amy (May 17, 2019). "See where 'Sopranos' movie 'The Many Saints of Newark' recreated Satriale's Pork Store". nj.
- ^ a b c Parrillo, Rosemary (March 4, 2001). "The Locations". The Star-Ledger. Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
- ^ "'Sopranos' Pork Store Demolished". Fox News. November 12, 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2007.
- ^ "Owner selling bricks from 'Sopranos' pork store". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 August 2007.
- ^ "Satriale's Sandwich Deli offers diners a delight they can't refuse". The Daily Telegraph. October 21, 2016.
External links
- "New Jersey Online - The Sopranos". NJ.com. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
