"Tonight, he's having dinner with TEPaul, my wife and myself at a terrific Italian restaurant just a few blocks from Tony Soprano's home.
TEPaul requested a "Hollywood" like tour of the "wise guy" homes and some good Italian restaurants in Northern New Jersey, instead of the likes of the Macaroni Grill he dines at, in King of Prescuto, PA."
Golfclubaltasers:
If you want a Hollywood like tour of the "wise guy" world don't bother about that tour he just mentioned, just go to Pat Mucci's town in North Jersey and go out to dinner with Pat Mucci and his wife in one of his favorite restaurants. These top-notch wise-guys, the ones they call America's "Dons" are never people you would recognize as such and that's obviously by very clever design.
But it was not until last night that I realized our own Pat Mucci is "The Don"! He has to be the guy Tony Soprano's character was patterned after.
My God, I was in that restaurant for five minutes and it was impossible to miss (David Elvins' can attest to that and confirm it). People were coming up incessantly and kissing his hand and paying homage to him. The entire restaurant ownership and management, including every waiter in the place came up and paid homage to him. The Chef came out of the kitchen and paid homage to him. They were giving him drinks of every kind and variety left and right, people from other tables were stopping by and doing things like buying him desert. Our waiter put on his best "Specials" Broadway act. The Maitre d' performed a work of art right at the table on the desert (Pat that guy can perform surgery on me any day).
At the end Pat paid one whopping bill (If somebody else is paying I'm definitely not too proud to overtly spy on the bill when it's on the table
) but I don't for a minute believe he actually had to pay it. I think he just asked for it and signed it for show because the way that restaurant treated Pat Mucci, The DON, the character Tony Soprano had to have been patterned after, and his wife, I had the distinct feeling they knew if they actually tried to charge Pat Mucci, The DON, they'd very likely all get whacked the next day, if not sooner.
Great restaurant Pat.
Where in the hell was I in New Jersey? I had to have been a whole lot farther north than I thought. I thought I was going to be on the GS Parkway for about a mile. It seemed like about 30 plus miles. But when I finally hit the NJ Turnpike I just flicked it into turbo-boost overdrive and was home in under an hour.
By the way, GOLFCLUBATLASERS, if you can find a restaurant in North Jersey by the name of Lu NELLO it is really good. Just go in there and say you know Pat Mucci and if they don't give you a great dinner FOR FREE I would be shocked.