HAAM, a Vegan Caribbean Restaurant, Opens in Williamsburg

"A new plant-based Caribbean restaurant in Williamsburg (opening Nov. 15) offers a Dominican–Trinidadian take on vegan cooking that emphasizes familiar textures and family-rooted flavors. The daytime-focused menu includes a signature sweet-plantain boat topped with plant-based beef and vegan queso, a bake-and-shark riff made with banana blossoms, a hearts-of-palm ceviche, and a mofongo that uses crisped lion’s mane to mimic chicharrón; oyster and king oyster mushrooms are also transformed into jerked “chicken” and scallop-style preparations. The space is a sunny corner spot with large windows, a mural evoking the owners’ homelands, and Caribbean touches like a steel drum, a tawa from Trinidad, and a Dominican guira, and it aims for warm, hospitable service rather than fast-casual anonymity. The project grew from the founder’s social-media cooking project, pop-ups, and a ghost kitchen, and remains deliberately independent of major plant-protein brands; family involvement is central (from a Trini-made hot sauce using garden peppers to the founder’s father’s tropical-fruit legacy), and fresh juices — and eventually cocktails pending a liquor license — are part of the concept." - Tammie Teclemariam