Heart Attack Grill

Official website. The video makes overeating a paradise.

“”…I run perhaps the only honest restaurant in America. Hey, this is bad for you, and it's gonna kill ya.

—"Dr." Jon, owner of the Heart Attack Grill

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Heart Attack Grill (also goes by the acronym "HAG"… no seriously) is an American dine-in "breastaurant" located in the heart of Las Vegas, Nevada. It was previously located in Tempe, Arizona and Dallas, Texas, although both of these locations are now defunct. The restaurant is notorious for serving up dishes containing inhuman levels of fat, cholesterol, sugar, salt and calories, with their infamous "Octuple Bypass Burger" (see Menu below) measuring in at a colossal 19,900 calories. The restaurant is an homage to at least to at least two of the seven deadly sins (gluttony and lust). The grill's slogan is "Taste worth dying for"; true to its name and slogan, people have in fact died as a result of frequent dining at the Heart Attack Grill. The company, to nobody's surprise, has generated significant controversy in its history, with calls from health experts to shut the place down.

Overview

Have you ever dreamed about a restaurant that didn't care about you stuffing yourself on the absolute worst junk-food imaginable? Heart Attack Grill has it. You may never have imagined deep-fried butter or deep-fried Coca-Cola were possible. Heart Attack Grill makes all of those ridiculous state-fair foods look like Jolly Green Giant vegetables in comparison. That's right, unlike McDonalds, Heart Attack Grill need not rely on serving water bottles and salad to bring in customers, because here, more calories means better.

In a nutshell, the entire concept of Heart Attack Grill is arguably more terrifying than any Six Flags haunted house, possibly by hundreds or even thousands of magnitudes.

History

Muerte, Las Vegas!

Heart Attack Grill first opened in 2005 in Tempe by Jon Basso in an attempt to serve up what he envisioned as "food pornography". Purportedly, before becoming a food pornographer, Basso was actually a fitness trainer and used to run a few Jenny Craig weight loss center franchises. Basso has claimed that he came up with the idea of the restaurant while working on his master's thesis in marketing on "on fitness-training studios and people who cheat on their diets."

Despite this, the restaurant was apparently a success, as it managed to thrive for six years until 2011, when the Arizona location abruptly closed down on 31 May of that year, two months after the death of spokesman Blair River (see Controversy below). It has never actually been established if his death was the true reason for the location shutting down, but it is generally accepted that it is.

A location in Dallas had opened just earlier that month, but was closed by October of that same year due to non-payment of rent.

Finally, in October 2011, the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas Nevada opened which remains open to this day. Notice how, for some really strange reason, the three locations almost never operated concurrently. There was, however, an attempted expansion to a second Las Vegas location… which closed after less than two months.

How it works

So here's how this place works: customers are called "patients". When they first show up, they are given a hospital gown and one of those colorful plastic wristbands such as is used in hospitals in case patients become unable to identify themselves. The waitresses are called "nurses", dressed in incredibly tight and revealing "sexy nurse" outfits: most "nurses" appear to wear push-up bras to make their breasts more noticeable. The waitresses, of course, take orders, which are called "prescriptions".

The real joy of Heart Attack Grill is that you can eat all the food for free. Only, of course, for those who fulfill the following requirements:

• The customers weigh at least 350lbs (158.8kg).
• The customers weigh on a scale in front of the entire restaurant. This is similar to when waiters get everyone's attention before doing the trite birthday song whenever someone is celebrating at a chain restaurant.
• The customers agree not to share their free food with anyone else: that's cheating.
• The customers dine in, as take-out orders (and beverages) are excluded.

Customers shouldn't order more than they can eat. If they cannot finish their meal, they are led to this big pipe thing near the front of the restaurant. There, the nurse grabs a big wooden paddle and, you guessed it, busts you big time in the bummies. If you somehow enjoyed that experience and want to take a piece of it home to remember it by, the used paddle can be purchased in the aftermath of your butt bustin'. Go home and frame it on your wall or something.

But wait, there's more! Customers who finish anything beyond the Triple Bypass are placed on a wheelchair and, literally, paraded through the restaurant all the way out to their vehicle in the parking lot by their "personal nurse", who served them inside.

Menu

Double Bypass Burger & "Flatliner" Fries with a bottle of Mexican Coke

• Single Bypass Burger: contains one burger patty, five slices of bacon, and two slices of cheese.
• Double Bypass Burger
• Triple Bypass Burger: three burger patties, 12 strips of bacon, five slices of cheese
• Quadruple Bypass Burger: contains four burger patties, 20 strips of bacon, and eight slices of cheese
• Quintuple Bypass Burger
• Sextuple Bypass Burger
• Septuple Bypass Burger
• Octuple Bypass Burger: contains eight burger patties, 40 strips of bacon, and eight slices of cheese. It exceeds 19,900 calories (33,000 kJ). This hamburger contains enough edible food matter to last an average human 10 days.

And that's not all, all hamburgers come with all-you-can-eat "flatliner" fries, cooked in pure lard, as if the lard coated bun wasn't enough. This counts as another 600-700 calories, by the way, so with the Octuple Bypass, that's officially more than 20,000 calories. Unsurprisingly, some food experts have advocated shutting down Heart Attack Grill due to its rather unapologetic serving of deliberately exceedingly unhealthy dishes.

Their drink selection is quite impressive indeed: Heart Attack Grill features an extensive selection of beer and tequila for those who aren't satisfied with ingesting over 20,000 calories. Another option that goes perfectly with the Octuple Bypass and lard fries: buttermilk fat shakes (another 600-700 calories). There is also bottled Coca-Cola made from pure cane sugar (which at least it's not High Fructose Corn Syrup, right?). They do not sell any form of diet soda.

Furthermore, you can even order filterless cigarettes and have a good smoke while awaiting your heart attack platter. There are even candy cigarettes for the children.

Advertising

Heart Attack Grill has been frequently accused of deliberate marketing controversy: i.e, the deliberate act of creating public controversy as a means of free "unintentional" advertising. The restaurant takes advantage of their notoriously unhealthy dishes as a way of drawing attention to itself, thus luring in more potential customers, especially tourists who travel to Las Vegas from around the world.

Heart Attack Grill started a YouTube channel in 2017, when they posted a poorly produced 30-minute infomercial in the style of a medication commercial, including a morbidly obese (class III obesity) alleged hospital patient.

The restaurant has also appeared frequently in television programs. There is even a section of simple and easy to follow instructions for productions crews who desire to film at the Heart Attack Grill.

Controversies

A Heart Attack Grill "nurse".

As you might have guessed, the restaurant has been dealt with a great amount of controversy throughout its history. While the entire concept of this place might seem like a joke, it has, in fact, had lethal consequences.

Protected terms

The Arizona Board of Nursing and the Center even filed a lawsuit against the company due to illegal use of the protected terms "nurse" and "doctor".

Death and illness

“”Death equals business at the Heart Attack Grill. Will it please me if other spokesmen die in the future? Absolutely.

—Jon Basso

The restaurant's first spokesman, Blair River, died on March 1, 2011, at the age of 29, from complications of pneumonia. Two years later in 2013, the 52-year old unofficial spokesman and daily patron, John Alleman, died of a heart attack outside the restaurant, true to the restaurant's name… and slogan.

In 2012, a customer suffered an apparent heart attack while eating a Triple Bypass burger. In response, Basso claimed:

“”I actually felt horrible for the gentleman because the tourists were taking photos of him as if it were some type of stunt. Even with our own morbid sense of humor, we would never pull a stunt like that.

Basso also added that there had been "variety of incidents" in the past without elaborating.

Later in 2012, a woman became unconscious, possibly from a heart attack while eating a Double Bypass Burger.

In 2013, 52-year old John Alleman, the restaurant's unofficial spokesman and regular diner, had a heart attack while waiting at the bus stop outside the restaurant, and died a week later after being put on life support.

Sexual harassment allegations

Basso was sued for sexual harassment claims by a former waitress in January 2019. The complaint against Basso claimed that he wrote to the waitress to prevent her from leaving the restaurant under any circumstances:

“”I cannot bring myself to fire you, and I will NOT allow you to quit because I am a jealous psychopath who believes that only I can best take care of you. So get this resignation shit out of your head and help pull your fair oar in our relationship.

The lawsuit was apparently settled out of court.

In 2024, a June 2017 video promotion of the restaurant by notorious porn star Ron Jeremy, billed only as "famous actor", became part of the main web page for the restaurant. Also in June 2017, Jeremy was charged with four counts of rape and sexual assault, and many women subsequently came forward to allege that Jeremy sexually assaulted them. In 2022, Jeremy's trial was suspended and later dismissed in 2023 due to his "incurable neurocognitive decline". Somehow Jeremy is still an appropriate representative for the restaurant. Even the porn industry's own trade association, the Free Speech Coalition, rescinded his 2009 award in 2017.

See also

• Personality disorder#Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Obesity

External links

• Official website
• See the Wikipedia article on Heart Attack Grill.
• Official YouTube channel