Best Vegetarian/vegan food

1. Morning Glory Café, 450 Willamette St., 541-687-0709, MorningGloryEugene.com.

2. Acorn Community Café, 769 Monroe St., 541-403-7647, EatAcornCafe.com.

3. Nelson’s in the Whit, 400 Blair Blvd., 541-844-8404, NelsonsInTheWhit.com.

Morning Glory Café, Eugene’s oldest vegan/vegetarian restaurant, has long been a place where Eugene residents and visitors could eat vegan without paying an exorbitant price. Morning Glory has placed in the top three of Eugene Weekly’s Best of Eugene polls for the past 10 years, and this is its second straight win.

Josh Aldersong, the owner and operator of Morning Glory, purchased the café in 2011, and opted to keep its menu meatless.

“That’s the legacy of the place,” he says. “There’s a lot of desire for that in Eugene, and we’re one of the last ones standing.” In fact, Morning Glory is one of seven Eugene breakfast and lunch restaurants that don’t feature meat on the menu, according to Happy Cow, an online service that helps traveling vegans find accommodating restaurants.

Not all those who travel for Morning Glory are vegan, though. Tamara Sirmons, a frequent visitor of Morning Glory, drives all the way from Portland to eat the food.

“I love pork,” she says, “but I love this more.”

Morning Glory also offers a from-scratch kitchen, with only the tofu and cheese being outsourced from local producers. Even the soy milk is made on-site, and the orange juice is freshly squeezed (and delicious).

Aldersong recommends ordering the Three Sisters breakfast — which features herbed potatoes, a vegetable medley and your option of nutritional yeast sauce, cheddar cheese, tofu sour cream or Moglo mushroom gravy — as it offers a variety of vegan and vegetarian options.EW recommends ordering the Happy Morning Sandwich — a fresh biscuit smeared with tofu sour cream and topped with a soysage patty, a glory tofu patty, spinach and tomato, as well as a side of herbed potatoes drenched in mushroom gravy. That soysage patty is a labor-intensive production, Aldersong says, but it’s more than worth it.

A Note From the Publisher

Dear Readers,

The last two years have been some of the hardest in Eugene Weekly’s 43 years. There were moments when keeping the paper alive felt uncertain. And yet, here we are — still publishing, still investigating, still showing up every week.

That’s because of you!

Not just because of financial support (though that matters enormously), but because of the emails, notes, conversations, encouragement and ideas you shared along the way. You reminded us why this paper exists and who it’s for.

Listening to readers has always been at the heart of Eugene Weekly. This year, that meant launching our popular weekly Activist Alert column, after many of you told us there was no single, reliable place to find information about rallies, meetings and ways to get involved. You asked. We responded.

We’ve also continued to deepen the coverage that sets Eugene Weekly apart, including our in-depth reporting on local real estate development through Bricks & Mortar — digging into what’s being built, who’s behind it and how those decisions shape our community.

And, of course, we’ve continued to bring you the stories and features many of you depend on: investigations and local government reporting, arts and culture coverage, sudoku and crossword puzzles, Savage Love, and our extensive community events calendar. We feature award-winning stories by University of Oregon student reporters getting real world journalism experience. All free. In print and online.

None of this happens by accident. It happens because readers step up and say: this matters.

As we head into a new year, please consider supporting Eugene Weekly if you’re able. Every dollar helps keep us digging, questioning, celebrating — and yes, occasionally annoying exactly the right people. We consider that a public service.

Thank you for standing with us!