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In the opening of season 3, episode 1, “Mr. Ruggerio’s Neighborhood,” we see Tony and the crew sit down for lunch together in the back room of Satriale’s butcher shop, and given the light, jovial atmosphere, we’re left to believe that this is a fairly common event. But this scene in particular has the hallmarks of a classic “Sopranos” scene, building on suspense, comedy, tensions within the crew, and of course, food.
As Tony makes his way to Satriale’s butcher shop for lunch with the crew, we see the FBI attempting their most audacious scheme yet; planning to bug Tony’s basement while he and the family are out of the house, which gives the casual scene an edge of tension. After cooking and serving a lunch of homemade Italian meatballs and white bread, Paulie Walnuts stays standing at the sink. Asked why, and he launches into an epic rant about the importance of hand washing after touching his shoelaces — as always, “The Sopranos” loves to draw attention to the multitudes each character contains — sure, do a hit before breakfast, no problem, but tie your shoes without washing your hands before lunch? No way.
The lunch also remains very tense as Patsy clearly struggles with his (warranted) suspicions that his twin brother was killed, not by a rival gang, but by his own crew. “Today would have been our birthday,” Patsy says. Tony replies flippantly, “It was a f***ing tragedy. What are you going to do?”
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