Foodswings

FOODSWINGS 295 GRAND ST. (BETW. HAVEMEYER & ROEBLING STS.), WILLIAMSBURG, 718-388-1919 "VEGAN FOOD" can mean a lot of things. There's healthy vegan, like the unparalleled Angelica Kitchen. There's Asian, like VP 2. And there's the diner/fast-food variety, like Kate's Joint. Joining this last category is newcomer Foodswings.

Three weeks ago, Staten Islanders Freedom and Lee Poerio-Tripodi opened shop. So far, response has been overwhelming. "We want this to be more than a restaurant," says Freedom. "We want it to be a place where people can hang out and be comfortable."

Clean and brightly painted, the space is inviting: Coltrane gazes down from one wall, and political/pop-cultural collages adorn laminated tabletops. While the customers are emerging as a mix of hippies, neighborhood vegetarians and tri-state-area hardcore kids, Foodswings is above all a family establishment. (Don't be surprised if a tousled pack of rugrats, high on Blue Sky soda, zooms past your table in a breakneck blur.) Freedom's mother Linda is co-pilot in the kitchen, and his two-year-old daughter Avery is often on-hand.

The menu offers soups, salads, finger food like a pu-pu platter and drumsticks, and a wide selection of sandwiches. From 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, Foodswings switches to its Midnight Munchies menu: fast-food items like a ham and cheese melt and french-bread pizza.

Foodswings sandwiches, both hot and cold, run the gamut of straight-up diner-style (BLT, grilled cheese, cheese steak) and more familiar vegetarian choices like the ubiquitous tempeh ruben. The no-turkey club ($6.25) is a double-decker of peppered turkey, bacon, romaine and tomato. A friend declared, "Kate's is better. But this is damn good." The standout no-Caesar club ($6.25) bears crisp romaine and tomato that's vivid for late winter. Garlicky homemade dressing zings against the backdrop of savory, sesame-seed-laden Italian bread. At a full nine inches, this is a more than generous serving that, for me, yielded three meals.

Desserts include gargantuan homemade chocolate-chip cookies ($2) and an assortment of cakes and pies by local baker Vegan Treats. I tried to hide my geek-out over the freezer, which is packed with stuff I'd never seen, such as a line of nondairy kosher ice cream from Klein's. Foodswings will soon carry the usual Tofutti Cuties and Rice Dream Pies, as well as the Soy Dream line. But I'm more interested in the box of Goldenberg's Peanut Chews, which they're already having trouble keeping in stock.