The antidote to KFC Courtesy of Foodswings
DCL
By now, you've all surely heard about the "Double Down," KFC's latest assault on human health, animal rights, and our eco-system, which comes with 1,380 milligrams of salt (about 60% of what the federal government recommends for an entire day's consumption) and 10 grams of saturated fat (about 50% of a day's supply).
Well, fear not, plant eaters and planet lovers...Brooklyn's best vegan restaurant has entered the fray with a little something called the "Handwich." They provide the specifics below but let's just say for now that the handwich just may be the greatest vegan sandwich ever created. That's why I spoke with the staff and owners of Foodswings and wanted to share that conversation with you.
WATCH VIDEO: Whale Wars: Vegans on Board
Foodswings Specifics
295 Grand Street Brooklyn, New York 718-388-1919
Hours
Sunday and Monday: 11:30am to 11pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday: 11:30am to 12am Friday and Saturday: 11:30am to 2am
My Conversation With the Crew at Foodswings
Foodswings: The Handwich is two faux chicken patties breaded with cornflakes and special seasoning, fried with daiya and tofutti cheese, faux bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion and a sweet mustard dijonaise (we add veggies because they're manly too!) created by Chad, our chef superstar, in mockery of the double down. We at Foodswings love to recreate all the fast food and dishes vegans have typically had to eschew. Someone that follows us on Facebook made the suggestion to us and we ran with it! Customers like it so much sometimes after they eat one they will come back to the counter and order one to go, too!
PG: More generally, tell us about Foodswings...a little about its history, its philosophy, its customer base, etc. How does it differ from other vegan restaurants?
Foodswings: Our philosophy is to not just satisfy vegans but to get other people to eat a meat-free meal as well. We are bringing quality food to people, and the more people who eat an animal-product-free meal here and there the better it is for the environment and for the earth in general, not to mention the needlessly suffering animals. So even if you don't care about animals but love the food we are happy to welcome you to Foodswings as you are making your carbon footprint smaller just by eating a meat-free meal. Just as an example, raising animals for food causes more water pollution in the U.S. than any other industry because animals raised for food produce 130 times the excrement of the entire human population (87,000 pounds per second!) Much of the waste from factory farms and slaughterhouses flows into streams and rivers, contaminating water sources. I could go on and on.
PG: Is the restaurant bringing in an increasingly number of non-vegans?
Foodswings: Happily, though our customer base started off as mostly vegans looking for vegan comfort food (most people grew up on meat and potatoes and are looking to fill that void), now our customer base has broadened because a lot of vegans are bringing in their meat-eating friends and the meat-eaters keep coming back because it's just damn delicious food.
PG: Vegan comfort food?
Foodswings: We are vegan comfort food, whereas a lot of vegan places are doing more fancy or experimental food or raw or some other take on veganism, we are doing the not-so-light side of vegan offerings, giving people burgers and fries and shakes! We also do lighter fare like salads but in truth a lot of people come to us for their cheeseburger or fried food fix or for our version of a Philly cheesesteak, which is killer I might add, and not terrible for you like the real thing.
PG: I've always sensed a strong animal rights vibe in Foodswings. What role does AR play in your approach?
Foodswings: Well, all owners of Foodswings are ethically vegan so it's really important to us that we source our foods from the best places possible and continuously come up with vegan foods that people will love. It saddens us when people hear one of us is vegan and asks "well WHAT do you EAT?" as if we sit around eating celery and carrot sticks all day. We are not immune to the pull of tasty foods and we want to be able to eat them too, but without any harm coming to animals! So we go out of our way to create vegan versions of foods people say they wouldn't be able to "live without" if they went vegan; well, now they don't HAVE to live without them! We're awfully sneaky that way.
PG: And you've done some AR fundraising work, too?
Foodswings: Also we try to help when it comes to animal rights directly as well. We had a benefit for Farm Sanctuary and donated 20% of our register that night. On a side note, we're people that give each other birthday gifts like adopting chickens, turkeys, and other animals in each others' names, two of us spent time in Louisiana after Katrina in 2005 rescuing cats and dogs in and around New Orleans and closer to home, have gone chicken wrangling in the Bronx to help rescue feral chickens. There's always more that can be done, but we try as a business and as individuals to do what we can to help end cruelty to animals and raise some awareness with awesome vegan food.
