In January, Garden of the Gods Gourmet catering took the helm of Café 36, the museum café with high ceilings and big views inside the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Actually, other than its interlude as Amuzé from June 2010 to November 2011, Gourmet has run the eatery since 2007.

My first experience with Garden of the Gods Gourmet was outdoors at the Colorado Farm and Art Market, where I often shop for fresh, local produce. It’s also where I (repeatedly) swing by Gourmet’s booth to partake in an embarrassing amount of samples. Those baskets of innocent-looking, thick, scrumptious tortilla chips made by hand have a siren song I can’t ignore.

At this latest version of Café 36, not only was I excited to see that my guilty pleasure chips are a standard side on the menu, I’m also thrilled that the atmosphere of fresh air and fresh food that I love at the farmers market has been brought so successfully indoors.

Café 36 is not Amuzé. Open only for lunch, private parties and pre-theater dinners, Café 36 is instead my idea of a model museum café: white tablecloths and stylish white tableware presenting artful preparations of casual food.

Simple: Salads, sandwiches, quiche, brunch, desserts. To tackle each in turn…

The salads are crisply on point, and the Curry Chicken Salad salad ($9) is a favorite from Gourmet’s market in Old Colorado City. Spiked with almonds and curry, the chicken salad may not be revolutionary, but it’s certainly detail-oriented, using not just one but three tasty dried fruits: raisins, currants and cranberries.

Another transported favorite is the Sweet and Spicy Kalua Pork Sandwich ($9), served on fluffy, moist focaccia. The spicy-sweet zing of the barbecue sauce will never get old for me, and the grilled pineapple is a juicy counterpoint. 

Fluted, buttery crust surrounds the deep-dish quiche ($10), which varies day to day. Mine had sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts, and the egg mixture blended with ricotta cheese was light, voluminous and melted in the mouth.

On a Sunday, the only day brunch items are offered, the egg strata special ($10) starred butternut squash and walnuts. It was redolent of Thanksgiving stuffing, and the two slices of eggy loaf were substantial enough to make a meal.

When not paired with a salad like the quiche and strata, most plates include those happy chips, though french fries can be substituted for $2.

As for desserts, I thoroughly enjoyed the Vanilla Custard Brulée ala Café 36 ($6). They don’t call it a crème brulée outright because it’s not one. It’s improved. Instead of being served in a ramekin, the custard is squeezed between rounds of phyllo before the dessert is caramelized via torch and drizzled with raspberry coulis. 

Café 36 has its artistic moments. Take for example the Crispy Zucchini and Ciliegine Mozzarella appetizer ($8). Diagonally sliced fresh squash is outfitted with a crust of crisp panko bread crumbs, topped with the cheese and a sun-dried marinara sauce that’s bursting with flavor. Each round is as visually pleasing as it is palate-pleasing, as artistic as one of the FAC’s exhibits and much in the artistic style of Amuzé. It’s also, however, in the style of the farmers market freshness I mentioned earlier. 

And then there are the visually nonpleasing dishes that nonetheless satisfy. Brown food does tend to be delicious, after all, and roasted veggies are one example. I took the server’s advice to toast the Veggie Rosso sandwich ($9) and add caramelized onions, and a vegetarian menu option that can often be bland was knocked out of the ballpark. The balsamic dressing, a spreading of hummus and a thick layer of provolone make the veggies really pop.

There are a few stumbles. While the lentil and fennel salad underneath the Citrus Glazed Mahi Mahi ($12) was inventive and superb, the fish itself tasted a little blackly of carbon from the grill. 

Always an American menu staple, the Artichoke and Spinach Dip ($7) was oily and overly mustardy. 

Also, portions are small. Of course, that means portions are actually in line with what a person should eat in one sitting, but they’re also smaller than most American diners might have come to expect. Prices, however, are aligned with those smaller sizes. 

Plus, as mentioned, not much here is inventive. This is a menu of solid American restaurant favorites, items you can find on menus far and wide. 

That said, Café 36 picked the light, café-style genre of food and ran with it, and I was one of many people who did — and will again — walk away from lunch happy.

People? Maybe I should have said “women” instead. On a recent visit to Café 36, I watched as eight tables were served lunch, and two were men. No, not two tables of men. Two individual, male human beings. 

Though I observed the phenomenon myself, frankly, I don’t get it. Yes, “lunching ladies” is a cultural stereotype that often proves true, but I can’t understand what at Café 36 might drive men away. 

It can’t be the ambience. The minty green walls, the high ceilings, the art deco flair or the wall frescos? Perhaps the amazing view through the towering windows looking out on the park behind the FAC? 

I don’t think that bright, fresh food should appeal to one gender over another. After all, there’s always the Flame-Grilled Burger ($11), a big half-pound patty of Angus beefiness to beef up a diner’s masculine cred. Perhaps the thin garlic fries are too delicately delicious? Wait. Sorry. Nothing can ever be too delicious.

I have great memories of many museum eateries. Leaving the table after a simple chicken salad (curried and dashed with fruit though it may be), I usually feel as if I’ve done something sophisticated, something relaxed and altogether civilized, even if I didn’t stop to see the artwork. 

Café 36 gives me that feeling.  

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