Foodswings

Vegan buffalo drumsticks with blue-cheese sauce

Photo: Beth Levendis

295 Grand St between Havemeyer and Roebling Sts, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (718-388-1919). Subway: L to Lorimer St, G to Metropolitan Ave. Tue–Thu 5pm–midnight; Fri 5pm–2am; Sat noon–2am; Sun 2–11pm. Average main course: $8.

Like a bookish coed doffing her top during spring break, vegan fare cuts loose at this late-night diner. Appropriately, a laid-back college vibe à la UC Berkeley pervades the grungy mustard-and-eggplant-hued room, where dreadlocked diners sidle over to the counter to pick up their orders and are instructed via a handmade sign to not throw away your f**king baskets. Even the decor is educational, with tabletop timelines chronicling the struggles of the working class. Got the munchies after your anarchists’ meeting? A pupu platter of perfectly fried and breaded mock nuggets and drumsticks that shred just like chicken (skip the included dreary fish sticks), and an addictive Rubenesque sandwich, which convincingly replaces pastrami with tempeh, could stump die-hard carnivores. Despite its promising name, the Vegan Heart Attack, a soy burger topped with even more soy in the form of bacon strips and cheese, is in no way a veggie version of a Big Mac, thanks to a bone-dry life preserver of a bun. Desserts, from Pennsylvania bakery Vegan Treats, fare better. The Amish delicacy of whoopie pie sandwiches velvety faux cream between two plush chocolate cookies. If you can’t finish your goodies, a stranger might offer to polish them off…like the one who happily ate the pawed-over remnants of our peanut-butter mousse bomb. Hey, it’s all good, man.—TONY