After a promising test run in its hometown of Denver, Chipotle Mexican Grill is launching a kids’ menu in five new markets around the country.

The move comes after research showing that Chipotle’s customers did not understand the extent of its menu, which, according to spokesman Chris Arnold, contains more than 60,000 ingredient combinations.

“The kind of dirty, little secret about the Chipotle menu is we’ll make pretty much anything we can make with the ingredients we have,” Arnold says. “A lot of people didn’t understand that.”

The goal now is to disclose the secret, especially in a tough economy where consumers are hunting for more—i.e., cheaper—choices.

While Chipotle has long offered kids’ options, it never put them on the official menu. For this reason, few besides regular customers with children knew about the “dirty, little secret.” But now the kids’ choices have made it onto the menuboard in Boston, Dallas, Sacramento, and Denver, as well as statewide in Arizona and Wisconsin.

The choices include quesadillas, single tacos, and a build-your-own taco kit, all for under $4.

This gesture toward its smallest customers represents a rather big step for Chipotle, a company known for sticking to its guns, perhaps to a fault.

“We generally don’t have a lot of new developments,” Arnold says. “Our menu has essentially been the same for 16 years.”

Angel Morales, a family marketing consultant at C3 International, thinks the kids’ menu is a good move, though somewhat belated.

“We’re actually surprised they didn’t do it before,” he says.

Morales credits the economy for pushing Chipotle out of its comfort zone.

“I think they saw a substantial increase of families attending their locations because of the economy and they thought they could benefit from it,” he says.

He believes the kids’ menu is “just the start of something big” for Chipotle.

“If they see enough traffic and enough sales, we would expect to see a much more elaborate menu coming forward with a premium offering,” such as a collectible toy car, Morales says.

“I can see them partnering up with someone in the education entertainment industry like National Geographic. I feel pretty confident that’s something we’ll see by next year.”

Chipotle is keeping tight-lipped about its long-term plans.

“It’s way too soon to tell,” Arnold says as to whether Chipotle intends to launch the kids’ menu nationally.

“We haven’t put a timeline on it. We plan to let it go for a while and see how it goes for a period of time.”

Though still in its infancy, there are some signs the kids’ menu is going over well with customers.

“We’ve had almost triple the kids come in than we normally have because they love the meals,” says J.B. Gordin, a cashier at a Sacramento location.

“The parents think it’s great because a lot of times they have to order a big burrito or a big quesadilla for the kids and they end up having to throw most of it away.”

Gordin says so far the build-your-own taco is the big seller.

“They love those,” he says, “because they can make their own food.”