The famous booth where Tony Soprano sat during the final scene of the cult mafia show sold on Monday for a staggering $82,600. But now, just like Tony's fate, the identity of the buyer remains a mystery.
The booth inside Holsten's, an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in Bloomfield, New Jersey, that offers customers a front-row seat to television history, received nearly 240 bids at auction.
But the lucky buyer insists on anonymity for the moment.
As of Tuesday, the seating was already gone — replaced by new red banquettes and a nearly identical diner-style table. Also gone is the plaque that says: “This stand is reserved for the Soprano family”.
“It’s in a safe place,” Holsten co-owner Ron Stark assured the Post.
“You would have to wait a day or so and the buyer would disclose the information. They asked us not to say anything, so we will respect that. I imagine they will do it themselves.
“You have to keep guessing for another day.” Everyone needs to relax.
Workers also replaced all other booths and tables at Holsten. To the untrained eye, the glacier has never changed.
“It’s not that we want to do it. We were forced to do it. The stands were all broken,” said co-owner Chris Carley. “They were installed in 1976. That’s their age. That’s how worn they were.
Sopranos fans flooded the facility on Sunday – the last day they were able to pay their respects to the famous stand.
This piece of TV gang history has long drawn fans to Holsten's, which still regularly sees bus tours and enthusiastic fans asking to sit at Tony's booth.
“A lot of people came on Sunday. We had the stand available for photos. We had onion rings and menus on the table, and we didn't let anyone sit there and eat so people could take pictures. We were trying to do the right thing and make our customers and Sopranos fans happy,” Stark said.
While many Sopranos fans were left in a tizzy at the news of Holsten's renovations, regulars who actually spent time in the stands agreed they were due for an upgrade.
Tony Soprano impersonator Donald Metzger, of Teaneck, New Jersey, stopped to let off some steam in the new booth, wearing a black and white bowling shirt and sucking on a cigar.
“They needed to replace the cabins. They have been here for decades. What are you going to do? It was a piece of history and they did a good job rebuilding the place. It's much more comfortable. The old seat was getting mushy and the formica was wearing out,” he said.
“It’s still my seat. I don’t see anyone else sitting there – just me.
Metzger's friend Jason Kurek, of Little Falls, New Jersey, said the owners should have kept the old Sopranos headquarters because of the “presence it had.”
“If Ron and Chris, the owners, decided to retire and sell this place, I feel like the stand would have added more value. When the Sopranos house was sold in West Caldwell, it became much more valuable because it was used by the Sopranos. I hope this doesn’t come back to bite them in the ass,” he said.
Andrea Kluepfel, 70, and her husband Charlie, 79, are regulars at Holsten's — and have long been subject to Sopranos fans asking them to take their photos inside the restaurant.
“It seems the same to me,” Charlie said.
“Some people were so upset they closed the Soprano booth, but I didn’t care,” Andrea said.
While Andrea gave her approval to the new stands, telling the Post they were comfortable and much nicer than the old ones, which had vinyl tape covering the tears, she said she couldn't imagine why someone would like to buy the one that James Gandolfini and his on-screen family sat on.
“I don't understand who would spend so much money on this stand. I can think of so many better things to do with that kind of money. And where are you going to put it? It has to be in a big house,” she said.
“If I had that much money, I would give it to my grandchildren. I wouldn't buy a stand.