New York Times National Editor Sam Sifton recalled a rough-and-tumble childhood growing up on Willow Street, learning tricks like heading down Grace Court, which would trick pursuers seeking to “yoke” him into thinking he would be trapped on a dead-end street, then going over the fence and walking above the BQE to safety on Remsen Street. As the Times’ former restaurant critic, he also had memories of Heights food establishments, especially the old Queen Pizzaria on Court Street and Fascati’s, which he said was for him the defining slice. Other places he remembered fondly were China Chili (a favorite of your correspondent when he first moved to the Heights in the mid 1980s), the Promenade Restaurant, Mr. Souvlaki (“no place like it in the world” Sifton thought at age ten) and Capulets, where he said most of his St. Ann’s teachers could be found from about three in the afternoon until midnight. Continue Reading →