Mr. Wilson rejected her response. If she had amnesia, he reasoned, she wouldn’t know that she even had parents, much less that they had almost named her Stephanie. “With amnesia,” he said, “you have no past. Your name could be Refrigerator. This is about ultimate possibility.”

Once the plates were cleared, Mr. Wilson walked with purpose and vigor out of the restaurant and toward Wooster Street, where he and his real estate guy kicked off a tour of possible new retail locations.

He bobbed in and out of each space, firing off precise questions about dimensions and handicap accessibility. After, he powered down sidewalks to the Kit and Ace store in NoLIta, where the words “Time is Precious” appear in white neon above the checkout counter.

He was greeted by his wife of 14 years, Shannon Wilson, 42, and J. J. Wilson, 27, his oldest son from his first marriage. They founded Kit and Ace with Mr. Wilson, and are the creative forces behind the company.

The month before, J. J. mentioned, he had visited Kit and Ace stores in Miami. In that city, everything happens on “coconut time,” he said. “At Kit and Ace, we are so not late for anything. That’s just not how we operate.”

Scott Elliott entered the store. He is the chief executive of a charity founded by Mr. and Ms. Wilson, Imagine1Day, which seeks to build and support schools in Ethiopia. The Wilsons pay 100 percent of the operating and administrative costs, totaling about $1.4 million a year, Mr. Elliott said.

They sat down at a square table. Mr. Wilson mentioned that he likes square tables. “I have been studying communication for a very long time,” he said, by way of explanation.