Foodie Uproar in Mesa

Now that the oil spill is solved (right?), the national media gets back to its favorite pastime, roasting AZ

In case you missed the latest local controversy, we’re happy to report it has nothing to do with immigration laws or Sheriff Joe. Instead, the talking heads are all atwitter about a burger offered at a tiny beer and wine bar in Mesa. Pretty crazy, right? Who knew there were wine bars in Mesa. But seriously, from Chicago to London everyone is weighing in on the lion burgers offered at Il Vinaio in honor of the World Cup. Yes, you read that right, lion burgers.

Sounds like a great Scoop, right? Well, since the restaurant owner is no longer taking calls from the press, we decided it would be more fun to report on the reporting. It all started on Tuesday, when the Arizona Republic broke the story that Il Vinaio owner Cameron Selogie had ordered five pounds of “African lion meat from a USDA regulated free-range farm in Illinois, which Selogie said he researched to make sure they were humane.” The article also mentioned that, unlike another east Valley restaurant, which promoted it’s (weirdly) controversial rabbit feast to the press, the owner only sent out the offer to subscribers of its e-newsletter. Of course, when one of those subscribers turned out to be an ‘animal activist,’ the safari hit the fan.

Now the restaurant has been besieged by protestors and even bomb threats. Naturally, this was catnip for the national media, who mostly coughed up hairballs along the lines of this piece in the Chicago Tribune, which started with a punny headline (Make Mine a Medium-Roar) and ended with this lazy kicker, “Oh, Arizona…”. Meanwhile, CNN actually did a little reporting, tracing the source of the big cat meat to a Chicago-area butcher shop, where the owner has previously been convicted for selling meat from federally-protected tigers, leopards and even a liger—a tiger-lion hybrid. Oh my! Now the owner has taken to Facebook to defend himself, most recently announcing that, “il Vinaio Have received emails from BP Execs, Tiger Woods, Jan Brewer and Osama Bin Laden thanking us for takin’ the heat off them.” Meow!

Image via The Frisky