Kangaroo – It’s What’s for Lunch

Ray Legrue, Henry’s Great Alaskan Restaurant owner. Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

A kangaroo burger made its debut at Henry’s Great Alaskan Restaurant today.

It was one in a series of meats that staff members tried Sunday at the in-house taste-test. Also on the list were boar sausage, elk bratwurst, and water buffallo sausage. Henry’s served its employees a variety of beer samples alongside the meat, as well as plates of cheeses and crackers. The taste-testing was the final step of approval for a series of Monday specials, the first of which is kangaroo.

Ronni Filburn is a Henry’s employee. She says she liked the kangaroo burger, and that it would be even better medium to medium-rare.

“The flavor was really good, it was zesty,” she said. “It was just a little on the dry side the way it was, but cooked to order, I think it would be a good addition.”

Ray Legrue owns Henry’s Great Alaskan Restaurant. He says kangaroo meat is one of the items he purchased from his daughter, a chef and a salesperson for a Portland-based butchery. He says he and his team bought the samples and tried them in December, and that they invested a lot of time on planning between then and now.

“The problem was getting the logistics to get the product from Portland to Kodiak without the expense of the transportation making it something that was unmanageable.”

And Legrue says now that they’ve arranged importation, the next challenge is the meats’ reception. He thinks locals will enjoy the kangaroo burger, especially based on his employees’ feedback. He says most of the meats rated well at the in-house taste test.

“I’d say like 80 to 90 percent of the people really liked everything that we offered today. Not everybody, but that’s a really good percentage for any specialty product.”

Legrue says that all the upcoming meats are farm-raised and that the kangaroo burgers will cost about three dollars more than the beef ones.