Arby’s is celebrating football season and its brand positioning as meat experts with the Sept. 12 launch of the Big Game Burger.
The burger is a blend of two types of big game, venison and elk, plus ground beef. That’s cooked in sous-vide in advance and then fried to order, as Arby’s restaurants do not have grills or griddles.
The burger is then topped with fried onions, pickles, Swiss cheese, and a game-meat-friendly cherry steak sauce, and will be priced starting at $8.79.
To promote the burger, Arby’s is releasing a collection of merchandise on Sept. 9 and also offering a hiking adventure on Sept. 12 to what it says is the most remote location of the chain of more than 3.500 locations.
Called a hike-thru, a play on the terms “drive-thru” and “thru-hike,” which is a long-distance hike along a designated trail, guests can follow a three-mile path through the Colorado Rockies with checkpoints that have refreshment stations along the way. At the end of the trail they will receive a free Big Game Burger.
The Atlanta-based chain, a subsidiary of Inspire Brands, said people can learn more about the hike-thru at arbyshikethru.com. That site will also offer hiking socks, hats, anorak jackets, and Nalgene water bottles.
Those items also will be available at arbysShop.com starting Sept. 9
This isn’t Arby’s first foray into game meats. The chain with the slogan “We have the meats” first offered a venison sandwich in 2016 at 17 locations in communities where deer hunting is popular.
Those sandwiches sold out within minutes, and were followed by a national rollout on Oct. 21, 2017, along with a new elk sandwich at three locations.
The chain also offered a duck sandwich at 16 hunting-friendly locations in October of 2018.
Arby’s is comparatively new to offering burgers, which it first did in May of last year, and won a coveted MenuMasters Award for its efforts.
Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected]