Best Vegan Pizza Winner Announced!

Vegan pizza has come a long way! Thanks to the availability of meltable nondairy cheeses and tasty faux-meat products, more and more pizzerias across the nation are expanding their menus to include mouthwatering vegan pizzas.

Hundreds voted, and dozens of PETA staff members drooled over the impressive list of vegan-pizza finalists. It was a tough job, but we're proud to announce the winner and two runners-up of our best vegan pizza contest.

The winner and runners-up will receive framed certificates to place in their restaurants, plus unlimited bragging rights for their delectable vegan pizzas. Bravo!

Best Vegan Pizza Winner:

3 Brothers Pizza Café  in Rockville Centre, New York, has an entire vegan menu, which boasts Italian-American favorites like "mozzarella" sticks, fried "calamari," and Caesar salads to accompany its award-winning pizza, the Seitan Bacon Ranch. Topped with grilled seitan, tempeh bacon, tomatoes, and Daiya mozzarella drizzled with vegan ranch, it's no wonder this pizza was named the very best!

Best Vegan Pizza First Runner-Up:

Boston's Peace o' Pie offers The Neapolitan Pizza, which includes fresh basil, tomato slices, and organic tofu ricotta.

Best Vegan Pizza Second Runner-Up:

Akron, Ohio's VegiTerranean offers the Chrissie's Choice Pizza, which includes wild mushrooms and VegiTerranean's own basil pesto.

Our eight other finalists and honorable mentions include the following:

• zpizza (locations nationwide): The Berkeley Vegan Pizza (marinara sauce, vegan cheese, veggie-burger crumbles, zucchini, and tomatoes)
• Red Dog Saloon in Norfolk, Virginia: The Vegan Buffalo Chicken Pizza (spicy Buffalo-style sauce, vegan cheese, Gardein chicken strips, spinach, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and pepperoncini)
• Pizza Pi in Seattle: The White Lightning Pizza (white garlic sauce, artichokes, grilled onions, mushrooms, and potatoes)
• Palà Pizza in New York: Funghi e Salsiccia (veggie sausage, field mushrooms, Daiya cheese, and hot peppers)
• Ian's Pizza in Chicago: Vegan By-the-Slice Thursdays (fresh veggies, Chicago Soydairy's Teese, and Upton's Naturals seitan meats)
• Village Pizza in Atlanta: The Village Vegan Deluxe Pizza (mushrooms, onion, green pepper, black olives, soy meats, and soy cheese)
• Patxi's Chicago Pizza in San Francisco: The Vegan Deep Dish Pizza (spinach, crushed garlic, red onion, and Daiya vegan cheese on a whole wheat crust)
• Pizza Lucé in Minneapolis: The Vegan Rustler Pizza (marinated mock duck, pineapple, banana peppers, red onion, Daiya cheese, and BBQ/red sauce)
• Other popular write-ins included Blackbird Pizzeria and Pizza Fusion.

Congratulations to our top three and to all our finalists for providing delicious cruelty-free dining for your costumers.