Home & Garden Home Top 10 US Cities for Plant-Based Eating By Melissa Breyer Editorial Director Hunter College F.I.T., State University of New York Cornell University Melissa Breyer is Treehugger’s editorial director. She is a sustainability expert and author whose work has been published by the New York Times and National Geographic, among others. our editorial process Melissa Breyer Updated January 17, 2019 ©. Joshua Resnick Share Twitter Pinterest Email Home Sustainable Eating Pest Control Natural Cleaning DIY Family Green Living Thrift & Minimalism Check out the (surprising!) American cities with the most vegetarian and vegan dining options. I am old enough to remember when there was maybe one place in a given city in which a person could get a vegan or vegetarian meal. And said vegan or vegetarian meal was often flirting so hard with health-food cliche that it was hard to celebrate it much as a culinary experience. But times have changed, and not a minute too soon. As more and more people are choosing plant-based foods over ones made with animals, the options are expanding and the results are delicious. A new report from Apartment Guide has taken a look at the offerings across the United States and crunched the numbers to show just how far we have come. In the graphics below, you can see which cities have the most vegetarian businesses per resident – an interesting metric in which to gauge an area's embrace of plant-based diets. Being in New York and having so many options, these results came as a bit of a surprise to me. But that is explained in the second ranking (bottom) which looks at total number of vegan/vegetarian establishments, regardless of population. The top cities based on vegetarians businesses per resident, starting with number 10: 10. Richmond, Virginia © Apartment Guide 9. Portland, Oregon © Apartment Guide 8. Orlando, Florida © Apartment Guide 7. Salt Lake City, Utah © Apartment Guide 6. Savannah, Georgia © Apartment Guide 5. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania © Apartment Guide 4. Ann Arbor, Michigan © Apartment Guide 3. Boulder, Colorado © Apartment Guide 2. Berkeley, California © Apartment Guide 1. Charleston, South Carolina © Apartment Guide Now for the cities with the most vegan/vegetarian businesses regardless of population size; number of businesses included in parenthesis: 10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (177)9. Austin, Texas (195)8. Houston, Texas (203)7. San Francisco, California (227)6. Portland, Oregon (234)5. Seattle, Washington (235)4. San Diego, California (269)3. Los Angeles, California (347)2. Chicago, Illinois (428)1. New York, New York (481) The moral of the story is: There are more plant-based eating options than ever. Which is great news for long-time vegans, more recent ones, and anyone looking to reduce their meat intake and boost their plant-based eating. Your health, the planet – and the animals! – all thank you.