There is a time and place for crystal and china, for grand celebratory dinners, exotic ingredients and thrilling molecular gastronomy. But most of us, given the choice between fine dining or a casual repast at the end of a long day, prefer to satiate our appetites somewhere less pretentious and more cozy. We yearn for somewhere devoid of attitude and affordable to eat at regularly—a real neighborhood joint where, with all due respect to Cheers, everybody knows your name. Recently opened Giovanni's Brooklyn Eats on Eighth Avenue at the corner of Prospect aims to be just that type of place. And…

What's in a name? Do we absorb the personality of the name we are given as a child or do we shape what that name means to other people by virtue of who we are? This is a pressure felt by many, if not all, parents. And the same can be said of new business owners. But just as hip-hop's Sean Jean Combs has transformed himself over the years, embracing many different iterations of his original nickname "Puff Daddy," there is always the opportunity for reinvention. When Konditori—a micro coffee chain that recently opened its third outpost at 240 Seventh Avenue—first opened its doors it bore a …

Consider the grilled cheese sandwich. As a child, you were given bland slices of American pealed from individual plasticene packets and slid between two pieces of innocuous white bread. After being browned in a buttered pan by your mother, that simple sandwich achieved a singular wholesome status in your mind: comfort food. But when you become an adult, you put away childish cheeses. You are taught to appreciate the creaminess of a Comte, the unctuous funk of an aged blue, the salty tang of Manchego. And the seed of an idea is planted in your mind that perhaps that beloved sandwich of yore …