In the fresh, handmade tortillas and inventive sauces and salsas ladled over well-seasoned meats at Blue Agave Mexican Grill, I smell a crossover hit.

Too often in Colorado Springs, Mexican restaurants fall into two unsatisfying categories. They are either American places with good locations but big, bland, lame menus, or immigrant-run taquerias with tasty traditional specialties but bleak, dingy strip mall addresses that all but guarantee failure.

Rare is the restaurant that manages to be authentic but not frighteningly authentic. Blue Agave may be such a place.

Here you can get the real taqueria experience of horchata or Mexican Coke in a thick, glass bottle, and spicy street-style tacos ($2-$3) folded around savory barbacoa, fried fish, pork adobada or grill-charred chopped sirloin. But you also get a clean, well-lighted place with easy-to-read menus, good ventilation, free Wi-Fi and dependable English.

The restaurant is the work of multiple generations of the Topete family, who moved here from Guadalajara, Mexico, and brought a number family recipes with them.

Last fall, they took over a hard-luck address on a hard-luck block of North Nevada Avenue that has housed several failed restaurants and did an extreme makeover. Diners are now greeted by a cute stucco exterior with big windows that bathe the small dining area with light. Modern pendant lamps hang over comfy booths. Order at the counter, and the family will bring your food to your table.

The tidy, modern space is a pleasant change from the somewhat bedraggled taquerias clustered around South Academy Boulevard, and the pleasant changes keep coming once you order.

All the tortillas here are freshly handmade, and a taco is the best way to experience them. Most come topped with a simple, fresh, handmade pico de gallo singing with lime and chopped cilantro. Add a little of a fiery, fresh handmade salsa of tomatoes and chile de árbol and you have a heck of a taco. They also have a fresh, handmade tomatillo salsa. And a magnificent chunky, fresh, handmade guacamole — have I said “fresh, handmade” enough yet? You should be getting hungry.

Taco prices here are a bit higher than on South Academy, and not all varieties soar — a shredded chicken version with shredded lettuce was a bit tame — but if you love real tacos, you won’t be disappointed.

It is worth going beyond tacos, too. Crunchy flautas ($6) — little rolled tacos filled with shredded chicken and (what’s this?) sweet potato — are savory and sweet. Tamales ($6) are double-wide, generously filled, arranged artfully in their open husks and smothered in unusual sauces; one option comes coated with a creamy green poblano sauce and sprinkled with cojita cheese.

A few things here are worth skipping. The chilaquiles ($6), which should be a breakfast dish of yesterday’s tortillas sautéed in salsa, are just tortilla chips with sauce — crunchy instead of leathery. The seafood enchiladas ($10) with shrimp and crawfish are too creamy and mild for this type of place. But in general, Blue Agave is dependable and fun.

Like all true crossover hits, Blue Agave gives you what you know you want, then slips in a few things you never knew you wanted. Don’t miss the jimador soup ($4), a traditional Mexican chicken broth spiked with dried red chilies, tortilla strips and cheese. Also try not to miss the cheesecake, which is, you guessed it, fresh and handmade with unusual Mexican toppings such as guava.

BLUE AGAVE MEXICAN GRILL3 STARS out of 5(A crossover hit)Address: 2819 N. Nevada Ave.Contact: 447-9999Entrees: $3.50-$10Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. dailyVegetarian: PlentyAlcohol: NoCredit cards: Yes

Blue Agave’s pork tamales with chipotle, front, and with molé sauce. Jalapeño and poblano sauces are also options with the tamale combination plates. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE