These days, you can find a meat-free dish on almost any restaurant menu. Sometimes that means sticking with fries at Burger King or ordering a chicken and goat cheese salad without chicken, but for most vegetarians, where there's a will, there's a way.
And when you're ordering in, the world is your oyster kale stem. GrubHub analyzed numbers from its national food delivery database, pinpointing the cities that order vegetarian dishes most frequently. Grubhub's data analysts looked at orders across 100 markets over the past 365 days, determining the percentage of orders per city containing a vegetarian or vegan dish, the comparing this to the national average.
Of course, you don't have to label yourself a vegetarian in order to enjoy a dinner free of meat. Deciding to stick with vegetables and veggie proteins like tofu and tempeh, even temporarily, is good for your health, the environment and a host of other things, too.
Check out the most veggielicious cities below. See anything surprising?
10. Boulder, Colorado
GrubHub users in America's most educated city were 34 percent more likely to order vegetarian than the national average. Smart, indeed!
9. Ann Arbor, Michigan
The animal rights organization Peta backs this college town for having such vegan-friendly dining options. Like Boulder, Ann Arbor is also 34 percent more likely to order off the vegetarian menu than the national average.
8. Austin/Round Rock, Texas
It's certainly not all smoked meats in Texas. These cities were 41 percent more likely to order vegetarian than the national average. You can find a host of meat-free restaurants that mimic that delicious barbecue taste without the beef and pork.
7. Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue, Washington
Washington's state vegetable is the "Walla Walla sweet onion," which is said to grow properly only in Walla Walla valley. The GrubHubbers in these three cities were 54 percent more likely to order off of the vegetarian menu than the national average, and probably enjoyed a lot of onion-flavored fare.
6. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim, California
Upscale vegetarian food is not hard to come by in the city of the stars. But sometimes, you don't want to be bothered by the paparazzi, so you order in. Hungry folk in the greater LA area were 65 percent more likely to order off of the vegetarian menu than the national average.
5. San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara, California
You don't have to stick to Hollywood to be able to order black bean burgers by the boatload; GrubHub users in San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara were 69 percent more likely to order vegetarian.
4. Ithaca, New York
Named one of the most influential restaurants of the 20th century by Bon Appetit magazine, Moosewood, a vegetarian restaurant with more than a dozen cookbooks, calls Ithaca home. Diners in this pretty city were 73 percent more likely to order off of the vegetarian menu than the national average.
3. San Francisco/Oakland/Hayward, California
The San Fransisco Veg Society is a non-profit organization that's been championing vegetarianism since 1968. It's no wonder that this city, with nearby Oakland and Hayward, ranks third on the veg list. Eaters here were more likely to order off of the vegetarian menu by 174 percent.
2. Charlottesville, Virginia
For the past 19 years, Charlottesville has hosted its annual vegetarian festival, replete with live entertainment, yoga and, of course, food. When the festival is over, residents turn to the plethora of restaurants that serve veggie-filled treasures; people in this city were 175 percent more likely to order off of the vegetarian menu than the national average
1. Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Who would have thought that you could find a plethora of meat-free food lovers down south? There are probably a lot of well-fed students in the Tar Heel State, as the University of North Carolina hosts special events for National Vegetarian Awareness Month, sponsored by its dining services. Durham and Chapel Hill residents were 305 percent more likely to order off the vegetarian menu than the national average.
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