Post Classifieds
Las Vegas grill flaunts gluttonous casualties
By Jonny Moran
On May 4, 2012
A woman collapsed while stuffing her face at a Las Vegas eatery on a Saturday night. She was
enjoying something called the "Double Bypass Burger" while smoking an unfiltered cigarette and
sipping a margarita.
She's the second person in two months to be wheeled out of (after probably being wheeled into) Heart
Attack Grill, a dining establishment that glorifies addiction.
"We attract an avant-garde clientele - thrill seekers, risk takers," restaurant owner Jon Basso said.
What's more thrilling than watching giant humans sweat and writhe in a public booth from cardiac
arrest?
With this restaurant, I don't even know where to start. Their slogan is, "Taste worth dying for." The
burgers range from 4,000 to 10,000 calories and up. The owner is dressed up as a doctor and the
waitresses wear nurse uniforms. The "Flatline Fries" are cooked in lard. They sell unfiltered cigarettes
and candy ones for the kiddies. Their pure butterfat milkshakes are topped with a pat of butter. There
is a sign on the entrance that reads, "This Establishment is Bad for Your Health." It's a cute gimmick,
exploiting a lifestyle that contributed to the death of their 29-year-old spokesperson last year.
Sure, people collapse in restaurants all the time, and at least this one is forward about its consequences.
But just because Basso markets honestly doesn't mean he shouldn't drop dead himself from exploiting a
psychological condition, no matter how common it may be, for profit.
And it's kind of a false-honesty. It's a "laugh at this stupid theory that eating burgers and fries is gonna
kill ya" kind of advertising that mocks at the potential consequences of eating their food regularly.
Think I'm wrong? Local news crews said that everybody in the restaurant right after the incident
occurred mostly accepted the woman's heart failure as an inevitability. They were completely unfazed.
"It's a treat, a yummy treat," a fat mom said to news cameras the next day as she dined there with her
young child. A passerby, when asked, said that the woman's collapse at the restaurant only made her
want to eat there more.
And if you think only gimmick-loving tourists visit this place, that they don't aim to draw in actual
obese people with actual eating problems, people over 350 pounds eat for free.
One out of every four deaths in the United States is from heart disease. It's the number-one killer of
men and women and is completely preventable.
I don't think the restaurant should be shut down. I don't think it should be illegal. In fact, I kind of like
the fact that one single place can be a magnet for news-generating conversations about our nation's
health. Paula Deen can't get diabetes every day, and as long as she keeps telling us to slam back butter
and lobster shooters for dinner (not kidding), we need to talk about why we really shouldn't.
Jonny Moran can be reached by email at moran.record@live.com.
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