Breakfast sandwiches have never been part of my repertoire, and when I do get one — usually at an aiport or a chain store — I’m generally in a hurry, so don’t taste it.

It’s time I did. My hunch is that eating a couple at indie restaurants that focus on breakfast will open up some new vistas vis-à-vis breakfast sandwiches (vs. lunch sandwiches, which are very much in my reportoire).

Our two contestants are: Bandit Coffee Co. in St. Pete’s Grand Central District, and Cafe Clementine inside the Museum of Fine Arts downtown.

BANDIT COFFEE CO.

At 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the line waiting for counter service reached the door. Four front-of-house dudes in their 20s/early 30s hustled things along, so the wait wasn’t too bad. Nearly all of the indoor seating was taken.

I’m impressed with Bandit’s clean exterior design. Inside, it’s industrial sleek, with unadorned white walls, communal tables and huge windows that make up nearly all of the street-facing wall. The sidewalk is outfitted with wooden benches under umbrellas and a big tree that adds more shade. Even so, on this toasty morning the astute move was to eat under air.

Bonnie and I were the only baby boomers in the place. I did see a guy who who looked around 50, but he was wearing a silly porkpie hat as he furiously typed on his laptop.

This was young, hip St. Pete — tattoo sleeves, mustaches without beards, baggy jeans, raggedy T-shirts. There were also a couple of young families, and some moms in gym-wear. The space was boomy, which made people talk louder, which made the space boomier. And yet it didn’t muffle the Ethiopian jazz playing over the sound system. Very hip.

I ordered bacon, scrambled eggs and cheese on a brioche bun ($10) and a drip coffee ($3).

Appearance

It took longer than than I expected for my meal to be delivered, but it looked attractive in a brown paper wrapper, thick-slice bacon peeking out, yellow American cheese wilting downward.

Texture and Taste

The sandwich was a handful, so I cut it in half. Not a good idea. I had unloosed a multi-napkin meal, although I didn’t have to go to the knife and fork.

The bun, house made, had a spot-on ratio of fluffy to dense. I like my scrambled eggs soft, but these were close to runny, and therefore the chief culprit of messiness. The eggs blended nicely with the cheese, though.

I generally prefer thick-cut bacon to skinny, crackly slices, but the version here was intensely salty — as this kind of bacon is wont to be. In a few of my bites, the saltiness, the smokiness, the bacon-ness, overpowered everything else.

CAFE CLEMENTINE

From a boho enclave to a bastion of high culture in the space of two days. Our two breakfast-sandwich competitors could’ve hardly been more different.

On Thursday at noon, with a light rain falling outside, the lobby of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg was thinly populated. With 30-foot ceilings, the space is echoey, but the small group of patrons were using their museum voices. Instead of hipsters discussing the latest craft-beer release, there was a quartet of clean-shaven elderly men talking baseball.

Cafe Clementine looks like an upscale concession stand, and does the cooking behind a barrier on the opposite side of lobby.

I ordered the Egg & Cheese Sammy with bacon ($16). One strike against Clementine, because it makes me slightly ill when a sandwich gets called a “sammy.”

Appearance

Far different from Bandit’s. Considerably smaller. And tidy. At a quick glance it could’ve been taken for an Egg McMuffin.

Texture and Taste

This breakfast sandwich not only looked neater, it ate neater. No need to cut it in half. And definitely a one-napkin affair. The eggs, fluffy and shaped into a disc, played well with the cheese.

At first I thought the bacon might be skinny and crumbly, but it turned out to have an agreeable chewiness, and pleasing levels of smoke and salt. The house-made English muffin was exemplary.

I finished quickly and was still hungry, so Bonnie and I split a Cinnamon Cardamom Roll ($7). It was decadent, messy, and required a knife and fork.

And the Winner of the Breakfast Sandwich Skirmish Is …

Bandit Coffee Co.

This decision comes with some caveats. I actually preferred Cafe Clementine’s sandwich somewhat more, and it would’ve won — had there been two of them. Sixteen bucks for a flavor-balanced breakfast snack compared to $10 for a messy, at times unwieldy, two-hander that didn’t quite mesh its flavors? I’ll go with the latter.

Plus, I’m a cat who considers himself Boomer hip, and I really dug the vibe at Bandit. It was not my usual scene.

And, finally, another tilting point: Egg & Cheese Sammy. Ugh.

A final note: I think I’ll stick to lunch sandwiches.

____________________

Bandit Coffee Co.  — 2662 Central Ave., St. Petersburg

Cafe Clementine — 255 Beach Dr. NE, St. Petersburg, (727) 896-2667