Chipotle tests lower-priced menu items.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: RESTAURANTS - Chipotle Mexican Grill

Despite a 22.7 percent revenue increase in a year that clobbered other restaurant chains, Chipotle Mexican Grill announced a trial run in April of a new menu in its Denver-area restaurants featuring smaller portions and cheaper prices.

Fans of Chipotle's giant burritos can be excused for wondering if the Denver-based chain is messing with a good thing after a year in which it opened 136 new restaurants to bring its total to more than 830 stores and generated $78 million in profits.

"We have found that many of our customers don't recognize the variety that exists within our menu, and that customers are sometimes unsure what to order," said founder and Chairman Steve Ells in a press release. "With this menu, we are communicating the nature of variety more clearly, while still making great food affordable and accessible."

The menu changes include some new entree options, smaller-sized offerings at lower prices (dubbed the "Low Roller" menu) and a new kids' menu. The Low Roller menu includes soups starting at $2.99, single tacos for $2.25 and side salad for $2.95. By comparison, Chipotle's Classic Burrito sells for $5.95 and its Camitavore (pork) burrito sells for $6.35.

Chipotle spokesman Chris Amold said there's no timetable for how long the Denver-area menu test will run before Chipotle either scraps it or adopts it at...