‘Here Lived Stephen Daye First Printer in British America,” says a plaque on the wall. The restaurant’s logo is a line drawing of a printing press. For decoration, there are vintage type trays and framed newspaper pages. Harvard Square restaurant First Printer, in the former Herrell’s Ice Cream space, has a theme.

Yet the menu itself pays little attention to typeface, dishes described in a meat-and-potatoes font under headings such as “advance copy,” “first edition,” “second run,” “chef’s edition,” and “footnotes.” A restaurant’s true heart can be glimpsed in the font used on its menu.

First Printer is perfectly positioned to take advantage of nostalgia’s current cachet — witness the outbreak of mustachioed barmen slinging Prohibition-era cocktails in “speakeasies” across the nation. (First Printer could have aimed even earlier. Perhaps it’s time to bring back Puritan fashion.) There is real history here, in addition to brick walls, mosaic floors, and a small room located behind a vault door. But First Printer isn’t stylized or self-conscious. It’s a place for everyone in Harvard Square, not just hipster cool kids or the stylish set. Much of the staff is young and dressed in the everyday clothes of regular students.

The food follows in the same vein. Chef Kurt Vogel (Cask ’n Flagon) has created a menu that’s part Southern, part Harvard Yard. Hushpuppies and brisket meet black bean hummus and sandwiches with names like “The Lampoon” (grilled portobello, tofu, avocado spread, and so on, on multigrain bread).

Overall, the Southern dishes win this war. Lobster hushpuppies are a fine snack, springy rounds of dough served with Meyer lemon butter. Any lobster flavor is, however, lost. Grits, creamy and comforting, are enriched with Asiago cheese and a bit of aromatic tomato broth, topped with shrimp and slices of andouille sausage.