I will second that as someone who has been vegetarian their whole life. I do feel like vegetarian (and especially vegan) food has steadily become more popular,

I will second that as someone who has been vegetarian their whole life. I do feel like vegetarian (and especially vegan) food has steadily become more popular, and "coming out of the food ghetto" is a great way to describe it. Based on my taste in food, I think if I wasn't vegetarian, I would probably eat a lot of meat -- so all the meat substitutes which have exploded in variety and availability has been a boon for me. It feels very "parallel universe" for me to hear that Carl's Jr and Whitecastle are selling premium veggie burgers now, I definitely had classified them as places I would never even consider eating at.