Iconic ‘Sopranos’ booth sold for eye-popping $82.6K — and buyer’s ID is as mysterious as Tony’s fate
The famous booth where Tony Soprano sat during the final scene of the cult-classic mob show sold Monday for a stunning $82,600. But now, just like Tony’s fate, the identity of the buyer is a mystery.
The booth inside Holsten’s, an old-school ice cream parlor in Bloomfield, N.J., which offers customers a front-row seat for TV history, received nearly 240 bids at auction.
But, the lucky buyer is insisting on anonymity for now.
By Tuesday, the seat was already gone — replaced by a nearly identical new red banquettes and diner-style table. Gone, too, is the plaque that reads, “This booth is reserved for the Soprano family.”
“It’s in a safe place,” Holsten’s co-owner Ron Stark assured The Post.
“You’d have to wait about a day or so, and the buyer will disclose the information. They asked us not to say anything, so we’re going to respect that. I would imagine they’re going to do it on their own.
“You’ve got to just keep guessing for another day. Everybody needs to just relax.”
Workers replaced all the other booths and tables at Holsten’s, too. To an untrained eye, the ice cream parlor looks same as it ever was.
“It’s not that we wanted to do it. We were forced to do it. The booths were all breaking down,” co-owner Chris Carley said. “They were installed in 1976. That’s how old they are. That’s how much wear and tear they’ve had.”
Sopranos fans flooded the establishment on Sunday — the final day they could pay their respects to the famed booth.
The piece of TV gangland history has long drawn fans to Holsten’s, which still regularly sees bus tours and eager fans asking to sit at Tony’s booth.
“A lot of people came on Sunday. We had the booth available for photos. We had onion rings and menus on the table, and we wouldn’t let anybody 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 sent into a tizzy over news of Holsten’s renovations, regulars who actually spent time in the booths agreed that they were due for an upgrade.
Tony Soprano impersonator Donald Metzger, of Teaneck, NJ, stopped by to ham it up in the new booth wearing a black-and-white bowling shirt and sucking on a cigar.
“They needed to replace the booths. They’ve been here for decades. What are you going to do? It was a piece of history, and they did a good job of rebuilding the place. This is much more comfortable. The old seat was getting mushy and the formica was wearing out,” he said.
“This is always my seat. I don’t see anyone else sitting in this place – just me.”
Metzger’s pal Jason Kurek, of Little Falls, NJ, said the owners should have kept the old Sopranos seat because of the “presence that it had.”
“If Ron and Chris, the owners, decide they want to retire and sell this place, I feel like the booth would have brought more value. When the Sopranos house sold in West Caldwell, it got a lot more value to it because it was used in the Sopranos. I hope it 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 subjected to Soprano’s fans asking them to take their photos inside the restaurant.
“It looks the same to me,” Charlie said.
“Some people were so upset that they’re taking out the Soprano booth, but I didn’t care,” Andrea said.
While Andrea gave her stamp of approval to the new booths, telling The Post they were comfortable and much nicer than the old ones, which had vinyl tape covering up rips and tears, she said she couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to buy the one James Gandolfini and his on-screen family sat on.
“I can’t understand who would spend so much money on that booth. 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 kind of money, I would give it to my grandchildren. I wouldn’t buy a booth.”
