In the kitchen of Afters Dessert Bar, there’s a whiteboard with a neatly bulleted to-do list. The first item reads “Ass Red Velvet.” The abbreviation’s meaning becomes clear as Stephen Kennedy, who ...

It’s the kind of playful shorthand that makes sense in a kitchen where a stone mortar and pestle is painted with a dog ... brand—an ice-cream shop, a late-night cookie shop—Afters stands ...