One of the best ideas in Christian Science has been to steer clear of dietary nostrums. Although Mary Baker Eddy’s life spanned such trends as the raw foods and tooth-breaking unleavened breads of Sylvester Graham to the nut-protein experiments of the Seventh-day Adventists, and although she visited their spas, her own conclusion was, " As power divine is the healer, why should mortals concern themselves with the chemistry of food? " She observed quite rationally that 19th-century dietary faddists were often ill, and Christian Science is one of the few religions founded in America almost entirely without dietary laws. Like many reformers of that century, Eddy preached against alcohol even before developing Christian Science, and Quotes remains a no-liquor restaurant. I’ve known some Christian Scientists who, like Mormon Church members, avoid coffee and tea, but other Scientists enjoy caffeine, and it is served at Quotes in excellent versions from Peet’s.

Although it has been promoted gently as " Back Bay’s signature café, " Quotes is not really out to compete with Sonsie and the Ritz. It’s quieter, like an undiscovered museum café, and closed on the weekend evenings that would make it a popular pre-symphony stop. It’s too well-lit for illicit romance, but it is a very nice place to eat, and so far not too crowded at brunch, lunch, or early dinner. You enter the library and explain at the desk that you are bound for Quotes; this gets you out of the admission charge and grants you a white sticker good for the café, the reference room, the gift shop, and the " Hall of Ideas, " which is your route to the food. Don’t be alarmed. While the hall is a pretentious Tuscan courtyard that used to be part of the Christian Science Publishing Society, the ideas are bite-size, just quotes, projected artistically in a fountain, on the floor, into a wall frame, and even over the counter of Quotes itself. Think: chicken soup for the mind. The quote boards subtly put Eddy up there with Shakespeare and Emerson, but like everything about the Christian Science Center, it’s very soft sell. The cuisine is bistro lite, not very original, but not obviously quoted, either.

The actual dining room is a bright room painted in faux brownstone, with a lot of blond wood, some lit panels like shoji screens, light- and dark-blue accents, high tables, café tables, and even a few plush chairs around coffee tables like the cool bars have. On one side, there are four computer set-ups with Internet access, although their main functions are the Library home page and catalogue, and a complete Christian Science Bible (King James and Eddy). Search " food " and you’ll find the quotation above, among others. (It’s not one of the quotes in the Hall of Ideas.) The music runs from New Age near-jazz to quiet classical trumpets.

The café serves the same menu all the time, but you can use it to construct anything from a coffee and scone up to a full-course dinner. Soups are rather expensive, but include a basket of excellent rolls — soft French and raisin-nut one evening; sourdough French and zesty multi-grain the next day at lunch. The rolls aren’t salted, but the butter is, and the soups are salty to a fault. That fault is least important in the mushroom bisque with fried leeks ($6.50), a menu staple. The purée comes hot with a distinctive flavor of porcini/cèpes, and a contrasting garnish of the caramelized leeks. Broccoli-cheddar soup ($6.50), a daily special, was similar, but green with dark dots instead of brown with dark dots, and it tastes like broccoli. On another day, turkey gumbo ($6.50) was rather plain, but at least made up of different colored chunks. On the whole, have the mushroom bisque.

Since spirit trumps " the chemistry of food " here, Quotes is one of the better places to have meat, potatoes, and gravy. That’s exactly what our special on roasted pork loin ($13.50) was, with two thick slices of somewhat over-roasted pork loin, excellent gravy, and truly superior mashed potatoes, possibly with the influence of cheese. Only a garnish of sprouted cress elevated the Middle American effect. A platter of shrimp en brochette ($14.50) is less successful. Over-broiled shrimp are less delightful than over-roasted pork, although charred onions and peppers are terrific. But the weakness of the platter is an endless orzo salad with decent cubed tomato and cucumber, bits of olive, and a few capers, but not much of a dressing. Since the dinner also includes a reasonable field-greens salad (again somewhat underdressed) with nice shavings of parmesan cheese, I think that less orzo salad, and perhaps a few more grilled vegetables, would have been fine. Or a simple slice of polenta, say.

For something lighter, the café has been featuring a plate of " California sushi " ($8.50). This is a near-perfect imitation of six inside-out California maki with avocado, phony crab, and cucumber, rolled in some black sesame seeds, and served with weak wasabi (which is all to the good if strong wasabi makes your ears fly off), chopped pickled ginger, which kind of works, and a little shredded salad with a soy dressing that Japanese restaurants might well note.

Temperance is observed, but there is quite a variety of things to drink, from the water with slice of lemon to decent espresso ($2.25), good cappuccino ($3.25), a thin but bracing chai latte ($2.75), and a very effective loose-leaf Darjeeling tea ($2.75) served in a Bodum French press coffeepot. The café also offers lots of desserts, of which you should not miss the cheesecake ($4.50). It’s topped with coconut and served with sliced strawberries, but the basic confection is so delectably rich that one might well consider its spiritual qualities, and avoid thinking about its chemistry. A crème brûlée of the day ($4.50) was vanilla our day, lighter than some, and also very good. The " Hall of Ideas Quote Cake " ($6.50) is a slightly fallen chocolate cake, cooked back toward solidity, with a quote tucked into the top; it’s like a fortune cookie, but much tastier. Raspberry coulis makes it even better, but the flavorless vanilla ice cream adds nothing. My quote was Shakespeare: " There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. " This is a good illustration of why quotes are not exactly ideas. The line sounds like something bracing and curative in the way of Christian Science, but it is actually Hamlet sharpening his wits on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He thinks that Denmark is a prison, and his thinking it so brings death to all three.

Service at Quotes is quite good, and the quiet tone makes it a place of respite in the Back Bay, if not a signature café. On both my visits, it was quiet and no reservations were needed, but this may change.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com