‘Sopranos’ Tourism Surges in Wake of Series End

It’s been almost two weeks now since HBO’s immensely popular series “The Sopranos” ended in the booth of a New Jersey diner with an order of onion rings on the table, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the jukebox and an abrupt black screen. Now travelers are descending on that diner—actually an ice cream parlor in Bloomfield called Holsten’s, according to an AP story by Janet Frankston Lorin—looking to eat Tony Soprano’s last meal or to sit in that same booth. “The phone just rings constantly all day from people wanting to make reservations,” co-owner Chris Carley said. “They ask ‘Can we reserve the booth? Can we get a T-shirt?”’ Longer “Sopranos” bus tours in New York and New Jersey are also gaining popularity.

Roland T. Rust, chairman of the marketing department at the University of Maryland, tells Lorin that the now-infamous black-screen ending—even Hillary Clinton parodied it for her presidential campaign—is helping the tourism surge. “The fact you don’t have that resolution makes it more difficult for people to let go,” he says.

You can call it a comeback, too. When we posted about “Sopranos” tours in 2003, they were being whacked in popularity by “Sex and the City” tours.

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