If you don't get downtown much, you may not have stumbled across Memory and Company. Tucked away in an old brick house on Second Street, this restaurant was once part of an old cooking school, although the school is now long gone.

To reach the tables you travel through a sun-lit hallway containing a long counter of desserts, a great promise of sweet things to come. When the weather is nice you can eat on the patio and watch the tulips bloom in the garden. If you prefer indoors, the dining room offers a reassuring view of the kitchen, where the bustle inside is clear evidence that your meal is being prepared. The place is so cozy you'd think you were in a friend's house. A friend, that is, with a taste for modern art and airy rooms, who reveals an unusual talent in the kitchen. Since friends like this are hard to find, Memory and Company has become a popular place.

Lunch is the main meal, although dinners are also served on weekends. The simple menus rotate each day and offer a choice of two entrees and three or four deserts. It's refreshing to go someplace where the decisions are easy ones, and you can feel confident that whatever you pick will be satisfying.

One day they served breaded veal baked with parmesan and a cold potato-shrimp salad. Both were excellent, and I don't usually like veal. The meat came with lightly cooked asparagus and a potato-turnip puree. The potatoes were flavorful and nicely textured, and it took the waitress some time to convince me they had hidden some turnips in there. The homemade French bread rounded out the meal nicely. The potato-shrimp salad was perfect for a spring day. In addition to the generous shrimp and potatoes, the salad was flecked with small sweet peas. The peas, like everything else, had been cooked to just the right degree-not too raw, but with a hint of crunch. The complimentary iced tea was tinged with raspberry and a bit on the sweet side. A perfect set-up for the next course, which I plunged into without hesitating. The crème caramel-a coffee-soaked custard with a light caramel sauce-rivaled those from a European cafe. The coffee served with dessert was rich and strong.

I could tantalize you with the other fine meals I've had there, but since the menu always rotates, it seems a bit cruel. Suffice it to say that I've rarely been disappointed-the recipes are well chosen, the food is always fresh, and the dishes never suffer from being overcooked.

The service is simple and the waitresses helpful. Although they usually tell their daily specials aloud, our waitress wrote everything down for my 90 year old grandmother to read. If you get impatient waiting for the bill, don't, because you won't get one. Just stop at the window on the way out and tell them what you ate. Then walk out the door, down the steps, and back into the ordinary world, with lunch becoming…a pleasant memory.