I ate the snails.

When I went to review La Baguette Bakery for its 25th anniversary, I realized I’d been snacking on the same few favorites off the menu for the majority of those 25 years.

Like most La Baguette regulars (and as a friend recently told me, “If you’re not a regular you either haven’t tried it or your priorities are out of whack”), I’d made a habit of savoring the crackly chew of real Old World crust in the French bakery’s baguettes ($1.95). I’d plunged a spoon through the molten cheese crown of countless steaming ramekins of rich onion soup.

I’d repeatedly delighted at the flurry of buttery flakes that fall when you break open a fresh croissant just before dosing it with cool, sweet strawberry preserves.

But the rest of the menu?

It was a mystery.

So it was time to wander out of the comfortably familiar haunts of habit into new territory.

So I ordered the snails ($7.75) and most of the rest of the menu to find out what I’d been missing.

It’s reasonable to think of 1984, the year La Baguette opened, as Year 1 in the local bread world.

Now shoppers can snag a good loaf at places like Marigold Cafe, Panera Bread and Whole Foods.

Before that, it was nearly impossible to get real, good, fresh French bread. In 1984, La Baguette was the only game in town.

It is still the most authentic.

La Baguette’s founder, an obsessive amateur Chicago baker named Earl Turnipseed, learned from bakers in Paris when he decided to go pro.

He imported brick steam ovens from France for the baguettes. Another French specialty oven does only croissants.

He hewed almost religiously to traditional recipes from the Seine and studiously ignored modern American trends.

When I asked him during the low-carb craze of 2003 why he was not going to offer a low-carb bread he said, “Because it’s a bunch of crap.”

A no-nonsense attitude apparently makes for a good bakery, because nothing I found on my grand tour really disappointed.

The chicken salad served on a fresh croissant ($6.85) is classic French: lightly mixed with a touch of homemade mayonnaise and celery and heavy on fresh, licoricey tarragon.

(As Alice May Brock, of Alice’s Restaurant fame, once said, “Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French.”)

A friend who ordered the sandwich griped that it didn’t fit her Colorado notion of good chicken salad – lots of raisins and apples – but as Turnipseed liked to say, “If you don’t like it, start your own restaurant.”

The omelets ($6.75) leave nothing to gripe about.

An expertly fluffy fold of three eggs comes stuffed (but not overstuffed) with fresh spinach and ricotta, tomatoes and herbs or ham and real, delicious Swiss cheese.

Most meals come with a very good roll and a side of fruit you’d actually want to eat (a novel idea).

The French onion soup ($5.75) – which is so popular on chilly spring days that the restaurant can resemble a New Deal-era soup line – is cooked for three days until onions, wine, pepper and chicken stock form a flavor as rich and complicated as a credit default swap trader.

Not everything on the menu is a tour de force.

Turnipseed sold the business in 2007 and La Baguette now has four independently owned shops.

All carry the same great bread and pastries baked at the original Old Colorado City address, but some offer other dishes that are, as the French say, “kinda lousy.”

Downtown diners can get a very good French toast ($5) that is brought down by fake maple syrup (yuck) and a breakfast buffet-style sausage patty that would be more at home at Denny’s.

The fondue, which I had never tried until a few days ago, cuts corners.

Instead of a classic stringy blend of Swiss cheeses, La Baguette uses a mix of fontina, eggs and half-and-half that speeds up the process.

It’s not bad, but it’s not the real thing.

And the snails?

I was suspect.

They arrived sunk in a steaming bath of butter, garlic and fresh parsley, with a skinny fork on the side.

I plucked a snail, which looked like a little brown mushroom, from the butter and took a bite.

The verdict: Invertebrates all seem to taste pretty good with enough butter and garlic.

The snails are no exception. They were delicious.

My favorite new discovery at La Baguette, though, is the owner of the Old Colorado City shop, Antoni Rog.

The 50-year-old Polish-born engineer lived in Chicago for decades and discovered La Baguette while on vacation years ago. He quickly became an out-of-state regular.

“We are so surprised in small Colorado they have so excellent bread and breakfast,” he told me last week.

In 2007, he bought the place.

He has kept the old menu and added a few things, but he has also brought a new take to the classic recipes.

He is trying to be more local and more organic.

He already uses local honey in the delicious cinnamon croissant ($1.95), and is trying to reliably get Colorado apples, and local flour, eggs and butter.

“My goal is buy everything from local farmers,” he said.

It’s about the only thing that could make the best bread and pastries in the region even better.

LA BAGUETTE BAKERY

**** (Magnifique!)

Hours: 7 a.m.-6 p.m, Mondays – Saturdays: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., SundaysEntrees: $2 – $8.25Vegetarian: LotsLiquor: Beer and wine at Old Colorado City locationCredit cards: yes

Waitress Casie Breeden holds up some the cafe’s croissants at the downtown LaBaguette Cafe. Photo by Christian Murdock/The Gazette