America's Best Vegetarian-Friendly Large Cities

#3 San Francisco, California

The City by the Bay is so vegetarian-friendly, it has multiple organizations and handy Web resources devoted to herbivores, including Bay Area Vegetarians, the San Francisco Vegetarian Society, and VegSF.com. San Francisco is also home to both the Giants' SBC Park, which has the best meatless stadium fare in baseball, and our friends at VegNews Magazine.

To see that vegetarians are turning the tide and have meat on the retreat, one need look no further than Geranium—this vegetarian-comfort-food joint is located in a former butcher shop. Also, tickle your taste buds at the gourmet restaurant Millennium. Bring in a flesh-eating friend for the monthly "Convert a Carnivore" night—you'll get a discount and will spare an animal's life. Read more about this phenomenal restaurant and Millennium's executive chef, Eric Tucker. Here's the dirt on the Bay Area's best vegan ice cream—Maggie Mudd is an independently owned and operated ice creamery with store locations in San Francisco. Try your favorite vegan flavor in a sundae, split, or float.

The caramelized "chicken" at Golden Era comes highly recommended. Herbivore is a trendy, all-vegan restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the too-good-to-be-true category, Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers has nine vegetarian burgers on its menu. And be sure not to forget about the long-time San Francisco vegetarian mainstays Shangri-La and Bok Choy Garden, which have both been around for more than two decades. The Rainbow Vegetarian Grocery Co-Op is the future of grocery stores with its breathtaking, all-vegetarian selection of unique foods.

San Francisco has so many vegetarian-friendly options that we're starting to run out of space, so check out Bay Area Vegetarians' restaurant guide for more info. On a side note—if you're looking to improve your own vegetarian-cooking skills, be sure to check out "Vegetarian Cooking With Compassionate Cooks," an engaging DVD presentation hosted by PETA's own Alka Chandna and San Francisco's Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, who hosts regular cooking classes in the Bay Area. Learn more about the DVD.

Top Tip: It's somewhat pricey, but if you can afford to splurge, make reservations at Millennium.

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