Monday, February 19, 2001

By Virginia Rohan - The Bergen Record

(For the complete column, click on the link above)

....On a related note: Fans of "The Sopranos," which begins its third season
on March 4, should check out a very informative Web site: http://sopranosonlocation.4t.com
It has all kinds of information about the local landmarks in "The Sopranos."

The site's creator is Bob Kozlarek, who works in the broadcast division of Panasonic and maintains the Web site as a hobby.

Kozlarek, who grew up in North Arlington and lives in Elmwood Park, recognizes many of these sites from his youth. "The pork store -- that used to be West Hudson Auto Parts [in Kearny], and as a teenager, I used to run down there," he says.

The Web site, which he started a couple of weeks into the first season -- and which has gotten around 37,000 hits -- evolved from conversations he had with friends at work. "I'd look at those places, and it got to be kind of a game -- how many places can you identify," Kozlarek says.

He has several ways of getting information about the shooting locales, but the main one is word of mouth. "It's kind of like one big network. People send things in," he says.

Kozlarek will not post any spoilers, and while he knows, for example, the location of the North Caldwell house that doubles for Tony Soprano's, he'd never invade the owners' privacy by revealing the address.

Satin Dolls in Lodi has a sign outside noting that it's the home of the fictional Bada Bing Club. And recently, I noticed the Party Box in Lodi has a little banner outside the front door: "the site of HBO's 'The Sopranos' Party Box scene, Feb. 6 2000." (Remember when Big Pussy and the FBI
agent ran into that ill-fated Elvis impersonator there?)

This could be the start of a whole new kind of historical marker for New Jersey. Imagine something like this: "George Washington did not sleep here, but one of the Sopranos did."