Hungry for venison? Head to Arby’s

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The two-week deer-hunting season doesn’t kick off until the Monday after Thanksgiving. So if you’re jonesing for a nice juicy piece of venison and can’t find a hunter who has some of last year’s bounty still in the freezer, it’s going to be a while.

Unless, that is, you can make it to Arby’s this weekend.

On Saturday, the chain restaurant known for its hand-sliced roast beef sandwiches will live up to its “We Have the Meats” slogan by once again featuring its signature venison sandwich.

Recognizing game meat lovers were an underserved market, last November Arby’s debuted a 5 ½ounce thick-cut venison steak sandwich at 17 locations (including six in Pittsburgh) in five deerhunting states. It turned out to be such a sleeper hit — scoring one of the sandwiches was akin to winning the lottery, with stores selling out in hours instead of days — that this year the sandwich is on the menu in all of Arby’s 3,400 locations nationwide.

Sourced in New Zealand, the farm-raised, grass-fed meat is taken from the hind quarter leg of the deer. To soften the meat’s gamey notes, it’s marinated in garlic, salt and pepper before being vacuum-sealed in a plastic pouch and cooked in a water bath (a process known as sous vide) for three hours. It’s then sliced thick and placed on a star-topped toasted roll with crispy fried onion and a Cabernet steak sauce infused with tart and piney juniper berries.

At 490 calories, the $7 sandwich is a tad more fattening than the restaurant’s classic roast beef sandwich (360 calories). But it