The carolina blue doorway of Ladybird Diner lolls open on a relatively sleepy Tuesday afternoon. Kianti Vann, going about her third week as a waitress for the restaurant, collects the peculiar salt and...

As I walked up to 721 Massachusetts St. on a Sunday afternoon, I groaned a little bit. Not because I wasn’t excited about the food; I felt the opposite. However, college students and families were rushing...