Natural State Rabbit @ Pizzeria Ruby- Brian Bonk, Meredith Butler, Mike Robertshaw

Happy New Year!!! In this week’s edition of the Flavors of Northwest Arkansas podcast, we talk to Natural State Rabbit President & CEO Brian Bonk. He runs what’s basically 2 companies in one – selling rabbit meat for food and the biologics side where parts of the rabbit are used in medicine and other things. Also with us are rabbit evangelists Mike Robertshaw and Meredith Butler of Pizzeria Ruby... but first!?!

FOOD NEWS!!!

• Black Apple Hard Cider closed at the start the year
• Crabby’s in Rogers also closed at the start of the year and are offering refunds for gift cards sold during their December promotion.
• KDK’s Chicken & Waffles in Fayetteville will open later than planned.
• Hear when the Botanical in Fayetteville will open! Also, Artemis next door is soon-to-open!
• Rendezvous Junction Brewing is holding a chili cookoff. We tell you how to compete in it.
• Buster Belly’s old location on Dickson is getting a new tenant.
• On this week’s Flavors Flashback, hear the horror that was the week leading up to the opening of Gaskins on Emma.

Natural State Rabbits resides in downtown Rogers and is the largest supplier of rabbit to restaurants in the country. They’re also a biologics company. They use parts of rabbits for medicine and other things around the nation and the world. It’s a pretty amazing story and FULL of history as the company started in 1911. We had the conversation at Pizzeria Ruby, as their relationship with Natural State Rabbit started before it was even called that. In fact, there was no Pizzeria Ruby at that point, and they were operating a food truck! How they got connected is a fun story. By the way, we were feasting on rabbit tenders during the interview and they were so good. I’ve recently become a fan of rabbit – if you haven’t tried it yet, think chicken but grass-fed and leaner. It’s SO GOOD.

They’re offering OUR listeners and followers 15% off their starter variety box, just use “FLAVORS” as the discount code at nsrabbitmeat.com. That includes free shipping, or you can hop over to downtown Rogers and pick it up if you’d like.

We hear from Natural State Rabbit President & CEO Brian Bonk, and Pizzeria Ruby’s Mike Robertshaw and Meredith Butler in today's edition of the Flavors of Northwest Arkansas.