Perhaps it's appropriate that one of Santa Fe's oldest restaurants will operate a new eatery in the New Mexico History Museum.

The Razatos brothers, Andy and Daniel, whose family has run the Plaza Café since the 1940s, will open their new downtown venture, the Cowden Café, on May 20 at the year-old museum, 113 Lincoln Ave.

"We're trying to gear toward just making it an easy lunch stop for local people and give patrons in the museum a chance to relax, have a drink and take it easy," Daniel Razatos said.

The café will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:40 p.m. and on Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a menu of sandwiches, soups, salads, premium coffee, teas, and beer and wine, Razatos said.

Locals will have free access to the restaurant, bypassing the museum entrance fee, by entering from Washington Avenue, he said.

"It's a way for us to do something a little different than what we do in the Plaza and present it in a different way than we do here," Razatos said.

The new café will cater to those on the go with only a short amount of time to grab lunch. An outdoor patio will provide an alternative for diners who prefer a more relaxing environment to the hustle and bustle at the Plaza Café, which is about a block away on the Lincoln Avenue side of the Santa Fe Plaza, Razatos said.

"When you're on your lunch break the last thing you want is something really crazy," he said, noting that the new restaurant will have free Wi-Fi for diners who want to check their e-mail or get a little work done.

The café is named for the Cowden family, a prominent ranching family who owned property on the New Mexico-Texas Border dating back to the late 1800s and have been Museum of New Mexico supporters.

"It's a great amenity for our visitors," said the museum's director, Frances Levine, "and we're so pleased to have both the history of the Cowden ranches and the historic culinary excellence of the Plaza Café combined in one location. It's just going to be a great experience for our visitors to learn a little history, enjoy some good food and some great vistas of downtown Santa Fe."

Contact Veronica Cruz at 986-3042 or vcruz@sfnewmexican.com.