By Polly Campbell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Melvin

Where to play the wild game:

The Heritage in Plainville has had a wild game festival every November for 24 years. There was a time when the event attracted controversy and protest from animal rights activists. That was when lion and hippopotamus were on the menu. Now most of the game served is farm- and ranch-raised.

Heritage owner Scott Melvin is not interested any more in true exotics.

"When I started asking questions about the sourcing, I didn't like the answers too much," he says.

His biggest supplier is House of Smoke in Colorado, a processor and distributor of meat from game farms all over the West. The venison comes from Broken Arrow Ranch in Texas.

Farm-raising wild animals such as kangaroo and elk is not uncontroversial. Some people raise questions about the ethics of turning wild animals into livestock. But Melvin, who has made a commitment at the restaurant to sustainable agriculture, points out that animals on game ranches are raised in more humane conditions than today's pork or chicken.

Steve Calvert, owner of House of Smoke, says game is essentially free-range, not given hormones, and not raised in cooped-up conditions.

The Heritage game menu is available in addition to the regular menu through November. It includes appetizers of Creole gator gumbo, smoked pheasant salad with sweet apple chutney and horseradish/mustard vinaigrette and a game sausage plate with parsnip potato cake and assorted mustards. (Appetizers $6.95-$9.95; $12.95 for sampler platter.)

A filet of bison, which is raised on large ranches in South Dakota, is prepared with a red wine/cardamom rub and served with orange butter. The elk chop, from Rocky Mountain ranches, has a lemongrass/red chile crust. Linguini carbonara is served with duck prosciutto and wild game meatballs. Broken Arrow Ranch, a sprawling ranch in Texas, supplies the venison noisettes, served peppered and with blueberry/bourbon sauce.

Melvin says the kangaroo on the menu, from ranches in Australia, is strongly flavored, a little less tender than beef.

"But then you'd expect it to be springy, wouldn't you?"

The kangaroo is marinated in a porter/scallion vinaigrette and skewered with portabella, cherry tomato, bell pepper and red onion over wild rice. (Entrees $17.95-$31.95.)

The Heritage game festival always includes appropriately named beverages: Woodpecker English cider, Snake River pale ale and Flying Dog classic pale ale.

Reservations: 561-9300.

E-mail pcampbell@enquirer.com