If it’s sunny, take a seat in the thrown-open front window; if gray, the area farther back is like an ideal urban cave. When you order a grilled cheese sandwich with “tomato cappuccino” ($8 or $1 off during happy hour), you will really get two slender slabs of ideal comfort food with a tomato soup whipped and served in a cafe cup, replete with unexpected edge of virtuous sweet. Price- and category-wise, this could just be a grilled cheese, but there’s nothing “just” about it. (Also on the $10-and-less menu: baby octopus, blue-cheese-and-bacon-stuffed dates, pulled-pork sloppy joe sliders). (Oliver’s Twist, 6822 Greenwood Ave N, www.oliverstwistseattle.com, 5 pm–1 am, happy hour 5–7 pm)

Jen Graves (The Stranger’s former arts critic) mostly writes about things you approach with your eyeballs. But she’s also a history nerd interested in anything that needs more talking about, from male...