Woman found unconscious at restaurant
A Heart Attack Grill customer was wheeled out of the restaurant on a stretcher – the second one this year. A man reportedly had a heart attack while downing a “triple bypass” burger at the same restaurant in February.
Saturday night a woman who was dining on a “double bypass” burger, drinking a margarita and smoking a cigarette at the Heart Attack Grill collapsed. “She was eating, drinking, smoking, laughing, dancing, having fun,” owner Jon Basso said of the restaurant-goer. “But when you treat your body like that day in and day out, eventually your body is going to give out.”
The Heart Attack Grill is all about overindulgence, and advertises its product as “a burger to die for.” Basso calls himself “Dr. Jon,” a “board certified burgerologist,” and walks about the restaurant donning a white lab coat and stethoscope. Waitresses are dressed like nurses and wheel food out on wheelchairs
Customers are referred to as patients, orders as prescriptions. A tongue-in-cheek sign on the door says “cash only because you might die before the check clears.” People who weigh over 350 pounds eat for free.
“We attract an avant-garde clientele — thrill seekers, risk takers,” Basso told the L.A. Times, adding that his restaurant is “bad for you but fun.”
In addition to a selection of bypass burgers (the “quadruple bypass” can top 10,000 calories), Heart Attack Grill offers “flatliner” fries cooked in pure lard and butterfat milkshakes made with pure cream.
A sign at the establishment reads “Caution: This establishment is bad for your health.”
“Unlike cigarettes, I have had warnings labels since Day One when we opened in 2005 telling people how bad our food is for you. I think that skirts any liability we might have,” said Basso.
The company’s nearly 600-pound spokesman died when he was just 29-years-old last year.
