Portland Ranked the Country’s Best City for Vegetarians and Vegans

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for the weekly EaterWire round up of all those news items we didn’t quite cover. This week’s food news cycle involved a drone accomplice in a food cart burglary and the sudden closure of a handful of Portland standbys, but a few stories did fall through the cracks. Read on for more:

VEGGIE HEAVEN — Portland was ranked the best city in the country for vegetarians and vegans, based on factors like the percentage of restaurants with vegan options and smoothie bars per capita. Los Angeles came in second, followed by Orlando. [WalletHub]

DONATION DANGER — An email obtained by Seattle alt mag The Stranger indicates Pacific Northwestern coffee chain Caffe Vita fired employees for giving leftover food and coffee to homeless patrons. “Although these were well placed intentions, please understand, it is our belief that feeding homeless people without comprehensive services actually enables, increases and promotes homelessness,” the email reads; reports from the National Coalition for the Homeless discredit this hypothesis. Co-owner Liz McConnell said the reasoning behind the firings was confidential but “for cause;” the former manager and author of the email has since quit the company. There is a Caffe Vita location on NE Alberta, but it’s unclear if they’re under the same scrutiny for this practice. [The Stranger]

ONE DOOR CLOSES — Three Doors Down Cafe, the Hawthorne neighborhood Italian restaurant, is changing ownership. Not much should change from the customer’s side of things, however; the new owners plan to keep some of the restaurant’s staples like tortiglioni with original co-owner Dave Marth’s vodka sauce, and the staff will not change. New co-owner Michael Galloway has run several Italian restaurants in the Seattle area; his partner, Jeff Saulsbury, is a Portland native. [Portland Mercury]