Oh Deer: Nashvillians Fawn Over Arby's Venison Sandwich

NASHVILLE, TN — Nashvillians with a hankering for a venison sandwich will have to settle for getting it the old-fashioned way: by dropping not-so-subtle hints to a friendly hunter.

A scheduled six-day sale of venison sandwiches at the Arby's on Rosa Parks Boulevard lasted less than five hours Saturday, as the restaurant sold out of its allotment in a single lunch hour.

Nashville is the first of 17 cities to experience the promotion and locals proved game for the rare treat; according to The Tennessean the MetroCenter-area Arby's went through 100 sandwiches in an hour and 15 minutes and its entire allotment of 250 in five hours, despite limiting customers to two sandwiches a piece.

The USDA won't allow restaurants to serve wild-harvested deer, so Arby's went with meat taken from farm-raised red deer out of New Zealand. Each sandwich included a 5.5-ounce steak topped with a Cabernet sauce.

Arby's venison promotion — which hoofs it to Georgia later this week and then to the upper Midwest — is intended to attract hunters to the store. As the newspaper reported, the local Arby's was even decorated with a camouflage motif.

Image via Flickr user jonnnnnn, used under Creative Commons.