The Williamsburg Nerd

Located around North 4th and Berry — photographed on April 27th, 2008 with my iPhone.

The view from my window as the sun sets on Williamsburg. If you look in the center below you'll see the Empire State Building.

Photographed Sunday, June 1st 2008 with my iPhone.

Manna is located at Grand Street and Lorimer and serves Middle Eastern food. The main draw to me is that fact that it's open 24/7 which in itself is a selling point since Uncle Mina retired and Kellogg's Diner is on hiatus.

As a vegetarian I like the fact that they have plenty of choices for me on the menu — their platters are the best thing to order. The baba ghanoush, tabouli and falafel are good bets, although I've had mixed results with the hummus so far. I'm also not impressed with the quality of the pita bread, they don't have whole wheat and my thinking is that even if the pita is average heating it up helps.

In terms of service is pretty good and the place is clean, although the only problem during the Summer months is a lack of air conditioning (of course many folks do the take out thing). So for me right now Manna is my default destination after hours when I'm hungry and looking for something healthy.

Update from July 27th 2008: I went back and tried one of the desserts which was just amazing! The only problem was that the hipster behind the counter didn't know the name of the dessert (he also should have heated it up as well). So if you're dropping in on Manna late at night give the desserts a shot.

Manna
Grand St & Lorimer St
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Link: Yelp Review

Being a vegetarian I often dread going to a new restaurant because I always hit that issue of "will there be anything on the menu for me?" On average I can always find at least one thing, and my favorite places will often have multiple items on a menu. Things are better than they were say twenty years ago, but it's still hard (and I'm just a vegetarian not a hardcore vegan or anything). So to me Foodswings is quite a blessing — it's a nice oasis for me.

Located on 295 Grand Street it's a nice small place just a few storefronts off of the main drag at Havemeyer. If you're a vegetarian with a big thing against "mock meat" this isn't going to be the place for you - them menu is loaded with everything from faux Chick'n Nuggets a Philly Cheese Steak. I guess I should also point out that this is by no means "health food" the point of this place is that it's a "vegan fast food joint" (although it should be noted that all of the items are indeed not vegan — but that's alright with me). What Foodswings is perfect for is vegetarian comfort food: An example of this is the A-Diggity Dog shown above which features two soy hot dogs with all of the guilty fixings like relish and sauerkraut.

Shown next to the soy dogs is a classic vanilla shake — again this isn't healthy for you but tastes great (although one should note that the scale of said beverage isn't too bad). In fact one of the strong points of Foodswings is the shakes and they do have an amazing variety, their menu features everything from a Vegan Hurricane to a Mojito float. The prices are very reasonable and the service is always good and as a plus they do deliver. They are closed Monday, but make up for it by the fact that they are open most weekdays until midnight and up to 2am on Friday and Saturday.

Foodswings
295 Grand Street, Brooklyn NY 11211
(718) 388-1919