The establishment is a hospital-theme restaurant: waitresses ("nurses") and waiters ("doctors") take orders ("prescriptions") from the customers ("patients"). Each patient dons a hospital gown and wristband before ordering, and those who do not finish their food will receive a paddle-spanking by one of the "nurses" with the option to buy the paddle afterwards.[1][2]
The menu is generally themed around items that are exceptionally high in calories and fat.[3] It includes "Single", "Double", "Triple", "Quadruple", "Quintuple", "Sextuple", "Septuple" and "Octuple Bypass" hamburgers,[4] ranging from 8 to 64 ounces (230 to 1,810 g) of beef with the "Octuple Bypass" burger containing approximately 19,900 kilocalories or 83.2 kilojoules;[5]all-you-can-eat "Flatliner Fries", cooked in pure lard, beer and tequila; "butterfat milkshakes"; and soft drinks such as Mexican-bottled Coca-Cola made with cane sugar.[3] Customers can also order unfiltered cigarettes or candy cigarettes for children.[6]
Customers over 350 lb (160 kg) in weight can eat at the restaurant for free.[7] One of the restaurant's promotions is a reward for customers who finish a Triple- or Quadruple Bypass Burger, after which they are placed in a wheelchair and wheeled out to their vehicle by their "personal nurse".[8]
History
The Heart Attack Grill was founded in 2005 in Tempe, Arizona, by Jon Basso, with the declared intent of serving "nutritional pornography",[9] food "so bad for you it's shocking".[10] The idea came when writing a marketing thesis about fitness training studios, as he became inspired by stories about his clients cheating on their diets.
The Arizona location closed on May 31, 2011,[11] with a Heart Attack Grill opening in Dallas, Texas, earlier that month.[12] The Dallas restaurant closed in October 2011 due to non-payment of rent,[13] and the restaurant's official website was scrubbed of any Dallas location information.[14]
The Las Vegas location opened in October 2011,[15] and is legally owned by Jon Basso's LLC, ironically named Diet Center LLC.[16] The restaurant's slogan is "Fighting anorexia since 2005".
On February 18, 2012, a D.C. group requested the owner of Heart Attack Grill declare "moral bankruptcy" and close the Las Vegas restaurant. However, the owner did not close and instead defended his restaurant.[17]
Illnesses and deaths
The restaurant's spokesman, 575-pound (261 kg) Blair River, died on March 1, 2011, aged 29, from complications of pneumonia.[18] The Arizona location closed shortly thereafter, on May 31, 2011.[11]
On February 11, 2012, a customer suffered what was reported to be an apparent heart attack while eating a "Triple Bypass Burger" at the restaurant.[19] Restaurant owner Jon Basso called for emergency services and the customer was taken to the hospital.[20][21] Reportedly patrons thought it was a publicity stunt and started taking photos. Basso later said, "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."[19]
On April 21, 2012, a woman fell unconscious while eating a Double Bypass Burger, drinking alcohol and smoking.[22][23]
In February 2013, an unofficial spokesman and daily patron, 52-year-old John Alleman, died of an apparent heart attack while waiting at a bus stop in front of the restaurant.[22]
Double Bypass Burger & Flatliner Fries with a bottle of Mexican Coke
In Spain, it appeared in the 33rd episode of the seventh season of the television program Madrileños por el mundo,[32] dedicated to Las Vegas, and also in the tenth episode of the second season of the television program Viajeros Cuatro,[33] also dedicated to Las Vegas.
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