News of a fracas at an engagement party in Brooklyn gives hope to all who worry that the city is losing its historic character: "There was a bunch of fighting and yelling, people running in and out of the restaurant and tastelessly dressed women cat fighting or threatening to cat fight. They were all behaving like unflattering stereotypes about certain Italian-Americans."

"Unlike many of the burgeoning brownstone revival districts of Brooklyn-Brooklyn Heights, to begin with, then Cobble Hill, then Boerum Hill, now Park Slope-the Carroll Gardens neighborhood (Carroll Park, two blocks away, provides the name) did not require a renaissance," proclaimed New York magazine on Dec. 31, 1974. "Since its first occupancy by Italian families, it has remained in single-family occupancy, by and large. An unrenovated house on President Street might be bought for about $50,000, if (and this is a very big if) one came on the market."

Today, the vestiges of this once almost wholly Italian neighborhood are in the social clubs, behind anonymous doors; restaurants like Sam's, at [...]