The Southwest School of Art occupies an old convent built for the Ursuline order in 1851. It is a serene and sublime place made all the more appealing by the creative activity that occurs within. (Don’t miss the gift shop.) It is also the perfect place for a modest little café run by an ambitious young chef.

The Copper Kitchen, instead, is a cafeteria housed in a glorious, historic setting—the convent’s old dining room with its broad-board floors and limestone walls. The menu is limited to soups, a grilled Reuben, a BLT, a chicken salad plate…and a couple of daily specials on the order of enchiladas that call to mind if-this-is-Wednesday-it-must-be-Mexican school lunches. A fragment of overheard conversation: “You are 90? I can’t believe it!” suggests that the audience might eventually dwindle—though some artists and denizens of nearby office buildings have been spotted.

Nevertheless, a grilled turkey sandwich with Swiss and poblano chiles comes across as honest, a cream of asparagus soup straightforward, and a coconut-frosted sheet cake, for all of its church-basement intimations, very satisfying, especially at the price. Yet, the potential…