The Sopranos: 'Operation Good Gravy'

By JEFF HOUCK The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jun 6, 2007

FBI - Federal Bureau of Ingestion

COMPILED BY: Agent Dwight Harris

OBJECTIVE: Eight years of surveillance of food behavior patterns by the most famous mafia family in the country

SUBJECT: Anthony Soprano

ALIASES: Tony, "T"

HOME ADDRESS: 633 Stag Trail Road, North Caldwell, N.J.

OCCUPATION: Boss of DiMeo crime family; waste management, real estate investor, part owner of several small businesses (meat market, strip club)

PARENTS: (father, deceased) Giovanni Francis "Johnny Boy" Soprano; (mother, deceased) Livia Pollio Soprano

GRANDPARENTS: (all deceased) Corrado and Mariangela D'Agostino Soprano, Italian immigrants who came over from the town of Ariano in 1911; Faustino (aka Augie) and Teresa Pollio, Italian immigrants from Avellino.

WIFE: Carmela DeAngelis Soprano

CHILDREN: (daughter) Meadow; (son) Anthony Jr.

OTHER RELATIVES: (uncle) Corrado "Uncle Junior" Soprano Jr.; (nephew) Christopher Moltisanti; (sister) Janice Soprano; (sister) Barbara Giglione

KNOWN ACCOMPLICES: (deceased) Sal "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero; Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri; Silvio Dante; (brother-in-law, deceased) Robert "Bobby Bacala" Baccalieri Jr.; (deceased) Vito Spatafore

KNOWN FOOD-RELATED HANGOUTS:

Satriale's Pork Store (formerly known as Centanni's) - Moltisanti strangely stopped eating food from the store about six years ago. Soprano and his associates frequently dine there and hold meetings.

Nuovo Vesuvio - Italian restaurant owned by Soprano's friend since high school, Arthur Bucco. (Rumor No. 1: Soprano once had an affair with Charmaine Bucco; Rumor No. 2: Bucco once considered shooting Soprano with a rifle behind Tony's house.) Charmaine left her husband for a period of time because of his close relationships with Soprano and other suspected mobsters. Soprano is suspected of ordering his consigliere, Dante, to burn the restaurant down to prevent Tony's uncle from killing a rival there.

Bada Bing - Adult entertainment establishment at 230 Route 17 S., Lodi, N.J., owned by Soprano, run by Dante. Frequently used as a gathering place for lunch or mob family dinners.

FOOD PROFILE:

•Whatever Soprano eats, he engulfs. Sunday dinners are important, not only for collecting his family around the table but also for denoting status among his associates. A seat at the Soprano table - and where you sit - tells you where you stand in Tony's world.

•Soprano enjoys using his backyard barbecue grill and is known to stomp through the kitchen at his home, throw open the refrigerator and start devouring prosciutto. He also is said to enjoy spooning through bowls of Neapolitan ice cream on the couch while watching old movies on television.

•Soprano once suffered a panic attack at the sight of a serving of "gabagool" (sliced Italian red-peppered ham). Reportedly this was because he related it to a repressed memory of the time he saw his father cut off a man's pinkie.

•Soprano reportedly suffered a serious bout of food poisoning after eating chicken vindaloo at a local Indian restaurant. Wiretaps picked up audio of him discussing a subsequent hallucination about a fish on ice that spoke to him.

•Soprano once confronted his Uncle Junior at the Sit-Tite Luncheonette for ordering a hit against Tony's wishes. Junior told Tony that the next time he came to see him, he should "come heavy, or not at all."

•When an acquaintance declined to write a letter of recommendation for Meadow's college application, Carmela brought her a ricotta pie and not-so-subtly convinced her to reconsider.

•Soprano once offered advice to Artie Bucco for how to revive sagging business at Vesuvio, saying the chef should use promotional offers. Bucco responded angrily that Soprano was disloyal for eating at rival restaurant Da Giovanni's.

•Anthony Jr., who bonded with his father over ice-cream sundaes, was scolded as an early adolescent during a family gathering for famously cursing about the lack of ziti.

•Meadow, Tony's daughter, got her name from a name tag on a restaurant waitress.

•Soprano's mother, Livia, was committed to an assisted living community after her absentmindedness allowed dinner to catch fire on the stove in her home.

•Soprano at one time paid the vet bills for a race horse called Pie-O-My. It was owned by Ralph Cifaretto.

•Bobby Baccalieri's nickname, "Bacala," is from the Italian name for "salted cod."

•Moltisanti's former girlfriend, Adriana La Cerva, once worked as the hostess at Nuovo Vesuvio before she left to start her own nightclub, The Crazy Horse.

•Vito Spatafore was originally known as Gino, the bakery customer. He later was identified as Vito. Spatafore, moved to New England to escape rumors of homosexuality and developed a fondness for Johnny Cakes.

•Rival Richie Aprile's body reportedly was disassembled in the back butcher's room at Satriale's.

•Soprano and Big Pussy once allegedly celebrated killing enemy Matt Bevilaqua by devouring two thick steaks.

For more about food and "The Sopranos," see stories inside.: - PAT: Instead of this, we need RELATED STORY, Page X:

MOB FOOD GLOSSARY

Eat alone: To keep profits for one's self; to be greedy.

Forbidden fruit: The lure of a wiseguy to a nice Italian girl from the neighborhood.

Gabagool: Italian salami (capicola).

Juice: The interest paid to a loan shark; also known as the "vig."

Mortadella: Derived from the Italian sausage, meaning a loser. As in, "Guy's a mortadella."

Sfogliatelle: An Italian pastry.

Taste: A percentage of the take. Tony gets "a big taste" from bookmaking or racketeering but only a "little taste" from medical fraud.