DENVER • Toward the end of his grandma’s life, David Muniz found her exhausted, hunched over, as if finally beat by the weight of the restaurant she and her husband opened more than 60 years ago. Between her bickering kids and in-laws, the future of Mexico City Lounge seemed uncertain.

“I was working,” Muniz recalls, “and my grandma was like, ‘I’m tired, and no one wants to run it the way I want to run it, and I should just sell it.’ I went to my mom and dad. I said, ‘Let’s keep this in the family.’”

So it is today.

After about 20 years under his father, Bob, Muniz recently became the family’s third-generation owner of the restaurant famously bringing a twist of tastes from one capital city to another.

Baseball is back. And with the return of crowds to Coors Field comes the return of crowds to Mexico City just a few blocks away.

Fans might not be able to count on a Rockies home run. But they can always count on the Home of the Fried Taco.

The crunchy, melty staple is most popularly complete with steak; chicken and beef are available as well for your belly’s pre- or post-game, beer-soaking base. The fried tacos are also widely trusted to cure hangovers. As is another house specialty: menudo, a traditional soup of cow’s stomach, hominy, lime and a red chile pepper blend, seasoned with fresh garlic, onion and oregano.

“It saved me in my 20s,” Muniz says with a chuckle, “having that menudo and steak tacos in my life.”

The menudo is among recipes passed down for generations — a symbol of tradition, while the fried taco represents something like progress.

The fried taco could not have been the creation of Grandma, Muniz thinks; never would Esther Garcia have cooked with American cheese. The stories Muniz has heard regard his business-savvy grandpa and uncles toiling away in the kitchen.

“I think they came up with a way to make them faster, pre-make them with meat and cheese and fold them, slap them on the grill,” Muniz says. American “was probably the cheese that was cheaper at the time, or it melted better. But it worked.”

And whatever worked, Willie Garcia appreciated.

Born in Monterrey, Mexico, he came to Denver seeking a new life for the family he’d grow. He’d do it with willpower as strong as the tequila he poured; his 1960s bars were named for places of his homeland. One was the Juarez. It was across from Larimer Street here where he’d open Mexico City, where Esther would get busy cooking.

Muniz’s wife, Candice Pineda, has heard stories of when the kitchen was in the middle of the restaurant.

“What I’ve heard is a lot of customers would come in for the drama,” Pineda says. “There was always family yelling at each other across the restaurant.”

There would be more frustration later, when a construction project down the street promised to change the restaurant forever.

Coors Field debuted in 1995. Long before then, Mexico City had been a low-volume spot for breakfast and lunch only. Some from the family wanted to keep it that way.

“I don’t think they understood what they had with the Rockies stadium,” Muniz says. “I don’t think they realized what that stadium meant for the future of Mexico City.”

It would mean youngsters from surrounding apartments joining the tight-knit clientele, the longtime regulars of brothers and sisters and cousins, tios and abuelos sipping coffee. It would mean more partygoers stopping in from other, hip bars that would sprout like the apartments.

Mexico City needed to rise to the bustling moment, margaritas and hangover cures and all. Change would be hard. It would prove to be a “burden” to some family, as Muniz put it.

Why did he want to take it on?

“I ask myself that a lot,” he says.

The answer, he says, has to do with generations of regulars still around between the pre- and post-game crazes. The brothers and sisters and cousins still meeting up. The kids now grown and bringing their own kids for cravings both traditional and not, those tacos undeniably crunchy and melty and comforting nonetheless.

The answer, Muniz says, has to do with legacy.

“I know my grandpa and grandma are looking down on me,” he says. “I know they’re proud.”

On the menu

Your choice of steak, chicken or beef on Mexico City Lounge’s fried tacos (three or four, $11-$14), The other rare, house specialty is the menudo ($15 for jumbo serving), a traditional Mexican soup that owner David Muniz calls “an acquired taste.”

His wife, Candice Pineda, likes to keep it simple: She loves the bean burrito smothered in pork green chile with a side of chicharrons. Also steak, chicken and beef burritos ($9-$11).

The enchiladas (three cheese, chicken or beef, $11-$13) are beloved and said to be among recipes passed down from the restaurant’s 1960s beginnings. Served with rice and beans and smothered in red chile.

The Mexican burger ($11) is also popular. The beef patty and beans are wrapped in a tortilla and coated with pork green chile, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese. It’s listed as spicy, as are the chile verde and chile relleno plates ($11).

Other combination plates ($13) feature bean and beef tostadas. A similar fried tortilla houses the taco salad ($11); your choice of protein in a mix of greens, cheese, tomatoes, avocado and side of sour cream and homemade salsa.

Another time-honored item: the elote, corn mixed with butter, chili powder and parmesan cheese and topped with lime and mayo ($6). That’s on the starter side of the menu, which also includes quesadillas ($11) and chile cheese fries (large for $11).