An Average Joe in San Antonio

There is a place where you can go to get out of the hustle and bustle of city life that is right downtown.  The Southwest School of Art and Craft is a beautiful campus on the grounds of a historic convent founded by French nuns back in 1851.  On campus, there is a delightful restaurant called the Copper Kitchen that I was able to visit recently with a friend on her suggestion.

The campus itself is worth going to see as it is an oasis in the middle of downtown.  When you go into the restaurant, if feels like you are in a time warp with beautiful wood floors and stone walls.  Being a restaurant on the campus of an art school, there are awesome paintings that flank the walls of the dining room.

I went on a Friday and got the lunch special of a grilled poblano and turkey sandwich served with almond squash soup.  The sandwich was very tasty, and I am going to have to start putting poblano peppers on my sandwiches at home.  However, what really stole the show was the almond and squash soup.  While I marginally like both almonds and squash, combined together they form a really tasty soup.  It was nice and thick with a hint of sweetness, and I can see just ordering a big bowl of it on a cold day.

The almond squash soup is worth the price of admission; I do wish they gave me one more side, like a little salad or something.

Even more fun was the atmosphere.  The restaurant is very conducive to sitting down, relaxing, and visiting with a friend.  There are no TVs blaring, or even piped in music, which is a nice reprieve from our world in which we are constantly being bombarded by media.  While it would be a great spot to bring a book and relax, I think having someone there to have a good conversation was even better.

One of the best atmospheres in town to eat; take a good friend or a good book and enjoy it.

Value: 8/10 (Wish they would have thrown on another side with my meal, but my friend got the Friday fish special and had a ton of food on her plate)
Atmosphere: 10/10 (My favorite part of the meal; you are on a beautiful building on a beautiful campus and feel quite removed from the hustle and bustle of the world)
Service: 7/10 (It is cafeteria style service so nothing amazing; one of the younger servers was giving an older server a little lip that put me off a little bit (even if it was in jest))
Taste: 8.5/10 ( Pretty tasty food; the sandwich was solid but not out of this world, however, the almond squash soup was really good)
Website: http://www.swschool.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=68

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Do you truly like to have a burger your way?  And by your way, I mean not only with just the lettuce, onion, tomatoes, mustard, mayo, and ketchup?  What if you wanted some grilled seranos? Or capers? Or artichoke hearts?  You would think you would need a place that was part burger joint and part supermarket, but you would be wrong.  What you really would need is Order Up.

Order Up is a popular restaurant near my place of employment and the menu is remarkably simple: Pizza, Burger, Taco, Soup, and Salad.  What makes it amazing is the level of customization that the consumer has over each of those items with an assortment of cheeses, vegetables, fruits, and sauces.

They have a terrific soup and salad combo, but this time I decided to opt for a hamburger.  When I go to Order Up, my goal is to make the most ridiculous hamburger that I can possibly create.  I don’t know why, I guess it is because I view the hamburger as my canvas, the options as my paint, and myself as the artist.  With so many possibilities, I feel like I cannot just create an ordinary burger but a masterpiece.

This time I opted to create a hamburger with lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, mayo, pepper jack cheese, grilled onions, grilled seranos, grilled mushrooms, and grilled pineapple.  The heat of the pepper really mixed nicely with the sweet of the pineapple.  The other thing that I like is that the meat is always good from Order Up; it is never overly greasy, but the little amount of grease that it does have gives the burger a nice flavor.

That is a highly customizable burger!

Lastly, be sure to park either in front or behind the main façade of the restaurant.  If you park in the lot on the side of it, you will be harangued by a female security guard, who will aggressively tell you that if you leave you car there you will be towed.  Just a thought.

Value: 8/10 (the base models (pizza and hamburgers) are reasonable, but it can get pricey adding on all the different toppings)
Atmosphere: 9/10 (I am amazed at how good I feel upon entering the restaurant; it has a lot of windows and the atmosphere feels as fresh as the food)
Service: 8/10 (friendly folks behind the register)
Taste: 9/10 (I enjoy the fresh taste of all the food)

Location is at I-10 and Wurzbach in the Colonnade

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