Sometimes in the morning, when I’m not feeling loaded down with work, I like to get lost (briefly) on the way to the office. It has its benefits. You discover places you never knew about, like Rhode Island Reds Cafe on (where else?) Rhode Island Avenue in Hyattsville.

Owner Chris Brophy wasted no time making me feel like a regular. Before I could even pick up a menu, he asked if I was interested in a freshly prepared breakfast sandwich, one that would kick the crap out of the Egg McMuffin. It’s served on a multi-grain Kaiser roll, he said, and comes stuffed with steamed herbed eggs, ham, and a slice of American cheese. All that for $3, he added.

How could I turn it down?

As Brophy made my sandwich, I picked up a to-go menu and started to review the other options available at this faintly country, faintly artsy cafe. That’s when I saw the actual name of my breakfast sandwich: The McTrotsky. Suddenly, my morning repast was not just a sammich; it was harmonious melding of Marxist theory and American capitalism on a roll allegedly named after Emperor Franz Jozef.

Parse that one, you wonks.

As Brophy, a former theater rat turned restaurateur, wrapped my McTrotsky to go, I asked him about the name. I should have expected his answer:

“We figured we needed a good Commie name to go along with Rhode Island Reds,” he said.

He’s got himself a pretty good breakfast sandwich, too. My eggs were fluffed to a downy consistency, which the roll nearly swallowed whole with its soft, airy crumb. The cheese provided the lone bit of “resistance” and “meatiness,” since my sammie was missing a crucial ingredient—-the ham.

Damn Commies.