Agreed. One of my fav scenes. Such a great moment of showing this other side of Tony that’s there...but so hidden, so subservient to the mobster/boss/‘captain of industry’ mindset.

Feels like it added a lot of depth to Tony, to Tony’s background, to Tony’s life, etc as well as for Artie....kinda further setting up the interesting dynamic of ‘what is a mob guy like with a childhood friend/a guy who knew him when they were just kids....and still is a friend now with a gangster/capo/then a boss.

Love it.

Also reminds me of the 1st ep where for the sake of exposition, Sil comes to Tony talking about the upcoming hit on Pussy Malanaga and says something like: “you remember Artie Bucco? Well the hit is planned to happened at his restaurant”.

Understandable b/c it’s the first ep and they gotta set that up, etc...also was shot in 1997, when the rest of the season was shot in 1999 and there was talk it was just gonna be a HBO movie, instead of a series, etc, before further details were mapped out, etc and all that.....but kinda funny looking back b/c as we learn later, these guys are great, longtime friends who ran around in high school, went to each other’s parents houses for dinner, stuff like that....but in that 1st ep Sil asks if he remembers Artie.