Like the hot stuff? Los Tapatios has you covered.

On the grand tour of family-owned downtown Lafayette Mexican joints, you can eat your way around the flavor wheel of green chile and never have a taste or texture repeated.

Start up on the north end of Public Road, at La Familia, where the sauce is heavily informed by jalapeños, chopped fine and complemented by thick chunks of pork. Across the street, at Santiago’s, your burrito will be bathed in classic gravy-style green, slick and influenced by tomatoes. Farther south, there’s Efrain’s, with a higher heat profile, and still farther down the road, at Casa Alvarez, the tastes are pushed another direction altogether by the owner’s South American upbringing.

And finally, way down on the south end of Public Road, Los Tapatios moves us into new territory, with a tangy tomatillo green sauce and a roasty red that keeps us going back for more.

The family-owned Mexican cafe opened last year without much fanfare. There should have been a party for entrepreneurs brave enough to convert a former video-game store into a cozy cafe, and bold enough to give palates made weary by the heat of the street something a little different to chew on.

Los Tapatios serves the complete canon of Mexican food, from arroz con pollo to vegetarian burritos, and all manner of fried and grilled meats and fish. But what sets the place apart is the attention to sauces. The tomatillo green sauce is tangy, a little hot, a little oniony, but not too much of either. It shows up in a chile verde plate, with pork, or on top of your burrito. The red, rooted in roasted chiles, is rich and fragrant. It shows up on egg dishes and in a chile Colorado plate, studded with chunks of beef. The pico de gallo is fresh, heavy with tomatoes, cilantro and jalapeños.

Breakfast spots are at a premium in Lafayette, so we’ve been eating our way through the top of the menu (most dishes $6.29, including rice, beans and extra tortillas), dallying once with huevos rancheros, two eggs atop a fried corn tortilla, bathed in a classic green chile, and once with chilaquiles, fried corn tortillas dripping in the not-too-hot green tomatillo sauce and dusted with dried Mexican oregano. And then we fell in love, with “huevos divorciados” — two eggs, separated by a cheese and onion enchilada, enrobed in just the right amount of house-made Colorado sauce. (You can make it a real divorce, by ordering red sauce on one egg, green on the other; the staff is happy to oblige.)

We’ve tried and liked the enchilada combo ($8.25) and the enchilada, taco and tostada combo ($9.75). On the next visit, we’ll venture on to chicken carnitas ($10.45) and tacos al carbon ($10.99) and keep eating until we’re full of the flavors of Los Tapatios.

Los Tapatios Mexican Food
Mexican. 1005 S. Public Road, Lafayette. 303-664-1435. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday; 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday. 75 cents-$13. Visa, MC

Front burner. Breakfast served all day, every day.

Back burner. No liquor license yet.

– Dana Coffield