Holsten's Ice Cream Floats: Fuhgeddaboutit

Last weekend, my bf, his sister, brother-in-law and I stopped in Holsten's during a trip back to our small hometown in the Garden State.  The restaurant, a joint confectionary and diner, is a little spot on the corner of Broad Street and Watchung Avenue in Bloomfield, New Jersey and has been something of an institution in the area for generations.

Since 1964, the 50's-looking eatery has been locally famous for homemade candies and ice cream, like this amazing, heaping scoop of vanilla chocolate chip in my root beer float:

[caption id="attachment_142" align="aligncenter" width="260"] Holsten's Root Beer + Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Float[/caption]

But in 2007,  it was Holsten's onion rings that stole the show and became world famous. In the final episode of  the HBO hit series The Sopranos, Tony & his family ate the onion rings here and listened to "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, just before the screen ambiguously cut to black.



About a year ago, when James Gandolfini passed away, Tony's fans flocked to Holsten's to pay tribute to him.  In his memory, the restaurant famously reserved the spot where the actor sat during the filming of the last scene.

[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="570"] Holsten's tribute to James Gandolfini. Image via The Bloomfield Patch.[/caption]

We reminisced about the Sopranos and trips to Holsten's growing up while sitting in the booth next to Tony's.  We ordered the onion rings and liked them, but the ice cream floats? Fuhgeddaboutit.

[caption id="attachment_140" align="aligncenter" width="455"] Scott & I drinking an ice cream float from Holsten's.[/caption]