Would you like an egg sandwich with your venti extra hot half-caf mocha soy latte?

Just stumbled across a New York Times article (quick, read it now before you have to pay for it) about how Starbucks is starting to offer hot egg and cheese sandwiches to better compete with McDonald's and how McDonald's started offering higher-quality coffee last year to better compete with Starbucks. Apparently, lots of people think that Starbucks' current food offerings, largely baked goods, stink (although personally, I couldn't get enough of their low-fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake when it was around last summer). So they're going to start selling their own version of an Egg McMuffin, only "re-engineered for the Starbucks demographic," which means it will have Cheddar and fontina instead of American cheese. Ha!

Anyway, I stopped into the Starbucks on Fourth Street downtown today and they're not selling the sandwiches yet, but I'm very curious to see how this will all play out. Frankly, the thought of walking into a egg-y smelling Starbucks to get coffee isn't very appealing. But then, the thought of walking into a greasy-smelling McDonald's to get coffee isn't very appealing either, and I found myself doing just that last fall after my weekly appointments with my hand therapist. Their new coffee really is good, and at least at that particular McDonald's, any size coffee was just 90 cents, a price that beats the pants off Starbucks.

Someone else will have to be the judge of how their egg sandwiches compare, though, as I've been a vegetarian for more than eight years now. (Although I suppose I could always order one without the meat.) So where will you be breakfasting after Starbucks breaks into the business? And whose coffee do you like better?

On a related note: Do you ever give a fake name at Starbucks, for whatever reason? E-mail me at lbishop@enquirer.com if you do and I'll tell you why I wanna know.