Bada Bing!

Bada Bing! is a fictional strip club from the HBO drama television series The Sopranos. It was a key location for events in the series, named for the catchphrase "bada bing", a phrase popularized by James Caan's character Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. The name was chosen by writer Frank Renzulli, after the proposed name "The Final Lap" was scrapped because a club in Minnesota shared that name. The popularization of the fictional Bada Bing club benefited the real-life go-go bar, Satin Dolls, where scenes were filmed. The Bada Bing is loosely based on Wiggles, a strip club owned by New Jersey mobster Vincent Palermo before it was shut down.
Strippers at the Bada Bing were portrayed by extras including Elektra, Gina Lynn, Justine Noelle, Kelly Madison Kole, Luiza Liccini, Marie Athanasiou, Nadine Marcelletti, Rosie Ciavolino and Sonia Ortega. The "Bada Bing Girls" appeared in a photo spread in the August 2001 issue of Playboy magazine. Michelle Eileen, another frequently portrayed Bada Bing extra, also appeared in Playboy Fall 2002 with photo spreads over 3 separate Playboy Special Edition magazines.
The Bing is owned and chiefly operated by Silvio Dante, Tony Soprano's consigliere, in Lodi, New Jersey. Tony's office is in one of the back rooms of the Bing, and the DiMeo crime family often conduct their business either in the office or at the bar.
The use of Bada Bing as the name of the club and elsewhere in the series popularized the catchphrase such that it was added to the 2003 Oxford English Dictionary as an exclamation to emphasize that something will happen effortlessly and predictably. Bada bing is imitative of the sound of a drumroll or rim shot, or may also derive from the "bada-bing" sound effect that James Caan's character, Sonny Corleone, makes to describe an up-close shooting in The Godfather.
Being a topless go-go bar selling alcoholic drinks, Bada Bing represents a deviation from reality insofar as real-world New Jersey state law prohibits topless or nude dancing in establishments that sell alcohol. However, New Jersey strip clubs without liquor licenses may opt to permit patrons to bring in their own alcoholic beverages, while full bars with liquor licenses are allowed to feature non-topless or non-nude go-go dancers (i.e. "bikini bars").
The show frequently used the club for sexposition scenes. Reviewer Paul Levinson described the Bada Bing, and its background of nudity, as a key setting for the series:
The Bing is where:
All interior and exterior shots of the Bada Bing were filmed on location at Satin Dolls, an actual go-go bar on Route 17 in Lodi, New Jersey. Occasionally the neon "Satin Dolls" logo is visible on an interior wall of the club. The office scenes, however, were filmed on a sound stage at Silvercup Studios.
The popularity of the series and the notoriety of the Bada Bing! resulted in economic benefits through tours and souvenirs for the real-life club. After the series finale, the owners of the real bar decided to auction off the furnishings at the club and replace them with new ones.
The club's name has inspired a coffee shop chain in New Jersey called Bada Bean and a darts team in Los Angeles named "FADA Bing!".