Oslo’s recently renovated Restaurant Schrøder has won lots of attention over the years, not least as the hangout for the main character in Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø’s books. This week it grabbed media attention for offering bear meat on its menu, and that’s something animal rights activists couldn’t swallow.
“This is highly immoral and disgraceful,” claimed Ida Skjerden, among those picketing outside the restaurant in Oslo’s St Hanshaugen district. She handed out fliers noting how “deeply disappointed” she and her fellow demonstrators were, and calling for a boycott of the restaurant.
Bears are considered a threatened species in Norway but are occasionally allowed to be shot if deemed a threat. Newspaper Aftenposten had earlier reported that the restaurant had acquired eight kilos of meat from a bear shot in Trøndelag in 2023 and then another 14 kilos from a bear shot in Sweden earlier this year.
Restaurant boss Simon Eriksson told Aftenposten that it’s so seldom such meat is available that the restaurant wanted to prepare and offer it, at a price of NOK 795 (USD 84.50) per serving. He said the meat’s taste varies according to what the bear has eaten, but a diet of mostly berries in local forests can yield dark meat tasting like wild game.
That didn’t tempt Skjerden and her fellow demonstrators. “This contributes to creating a market (for bear meat) and acceptance of shooting a threatened species,” she told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). “Would you eat a panda bear?”
Others disagreed, and were mostly curious about how bear meat tastes. “As long as no one has gone out and hunted bear in order to sell its meat, this isn’t the worst thing to do,” Kristoffer Dale told NRK. He works at the popular nearby restaurant Grotto, and thought it was “exciting and cool” that Schrøder had a limited offer of bear meat on its menu.
After a week on the menu, though, the restaurant’s bear meat supply was already running low, according to one of Schrøder’s co-owners, Andreas Viestad. “This bear wasn’t shot to be eaten,” he told Aftenposten, “but when it was shot, I think it’s okay to eat it.” He and co-owner Henrik Henriksen strive to offer traditional Norwegian food including a lot of fresh game in the autumn and classics like the preserved cod known as lutefisk.
“We don’t want to be a trendy or cool restaurant, but rather take care of seasonal food that’s perhaps fallen off menus elsewhere,” said Viestad, also known for educating school children on food and promoting urban farming and gardens.
There were also protests when the historic Oslo butcher shop Strøm-Larsen offered a limited supply of bear meat a few years ago. The wildlife preservationists outside Schrøder remained disgusted by the sale of meat from an animal under conservation orders.
They instead offered passersby colourful bear-shaped candy and the iconic chocolate bears known Bamsemums in Norwegian. Viestad planned to offer them some hot coffee when it got cold on the street after nightfall.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund