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Man Has Heart Attack at Heart Attack Grill


DarthNinja

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Hey, at least their advertizing is honest. I like this better than what places like McDonalds do, where they have commercials to make it look like their food is "healthy".

When they say things like "all white meat" in their chicken nuggets and have intelligent-looking moms happily giving it to their kids, I cringe. Also, there's the commercial where they focus on the eggs (showing farms, home cooking, etc.) So, you get the impression that when you have an Egg Mc whatever, you are eating a nice healthy fresh cooked egg (they fail to mention HOW they cook that egg...ew!). Totally misleading.

Don't even get me started on Kraft Dinner ads or cereal ads. :frantic::lol:

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It's not the first time that restaurant has been in the news.

575-pound Heart Attack Grill spokesman dies

by Weldon B. Johnson - Mar. 3, 2011 05:16 PM

The Arizona Republic

Blair River was a big guy with a big heart.

River, who stood 6-foot-8 and weighed about 575 pounds, gained a measure of fame in the past year as spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill, a west Chandler restaurant that specializes in thick hamburgers and fries. He died on Tuesday at the age of 29.

icon_new_boards.pngSend your condolences | River promoting Heart Attack Grill

The cause of death is currently unknown, but friends are speculating that it was the result of his contracting pneumonia after a bout with the flu.

Heart Attack Grill is an unabashedly unhealthy restaurant - the menu consists of huge burgers, milkshakes and fries cooked in lard - and having such a big man as a spokesman was part of its tongue in cheek "glorification of obesity." But those who knew River said he was more than the larger-than-life caricature he portrayed in promoting the restaurant.

Restaurant founder Jon Basso said he got to know River, first as a customer at the restaurant before working with him after he became the grill's spokesman.

"Cynical people might think this (River's death) is funny," Basso said. "But people who knew him are crying their eyes out. There is a lot of mourning going on around here. You couldn't have found a better person."

River was a state heavyweight wrestling champion in 1999 as a senior at Payson High School and he went on to play football at Mesa Community College.

He lived in Mesa and worked as a financial adviser at the University of Phoenix.

"He was a nice guy, very energetic and full of life," said Alex Arreola, a waitress at the grill. "He was always talking about his daughter and he always seemed to know the right thing to say to people."

Basso said River was the "creative genius" behind the promotions and was always coming up with new ideas for spots for the restaurant. They were even planning to shoot a spot called, "Heart Attack Grill: The Musical."

"Even if he was skinny we would have given him the job," Basso said. "We would have just put a fat suit on him. He just had personality."

Basso said they had to stop showing some of the ads featuring River on the video screens in the restaurant because they made some of the staff too emotional.

"We're like a family here and he was part of our family," Arreola said. "He will be missed. He'll definitely be missed."

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  • 2 months later...

Another one...

Photos: Heart Attack Grill lives up to reputation as second customer collapses

Owner calls diners ‘risk takers’

By Rene Lynch, MCTApril 25, 2012 3:47 PM

LOS ANGELES — The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas would appear to have lived up to its reputation for the second time in as many months: On Saturday, a woman collapsed at the restaurant known for gleefully serving up artery-clogging entrees.

Owner Jon Basso said Monday that he wishes the customer a swift and full recovery. But, he added, the woman got exactly what she asked for: a brush with death.

“We attract an avant-garde clientele — thrill seekers, risk takers,” he told the Los Angeles Times, adding that his restaurant is a “bad for you but fun” restaurant that “attracts people who don’t really take good care of their health.”

The condition of the woman was not immediately known; she was wheeled out of the restaurant by paramedics.

She had been downing a margarita and smoking a cigarette before she was stricken, Basso said.

“She was eating, drinking, smoking, laughing, dancing, having fun,” Basso said of the restaurant-goer, who fell unconscious Saturday night. “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 a hospital-themed restaurant that belly laughs at doctors’ orders to steer clear of excessively caloric and fatty meals.

Waitresses wear skin-tight nurses’ uniforms, and Basso dresses as the cardiologist on staff, complete with doctor’s coat and stethoscope. Diners are called patients. And on the menu: “Flatliner” fries cooked in lard, shakes made with pure cream, and four flavors of “bypass” burgers, as in single, double, triple or quadruple bypass.

The Quadruple Bypass Burger can top 10,000 calories. Basso said the Guinness World Records book contacted him Friday to say that the burger was being crowned the most caloric sandwich on Earth.

The restaurant also offers free meals to people weighing more than 350 pounds.

The popular restaurant was in the news in mid-February when a man fell ill while eating a “Triple Bypass Burger” and had to be wheeled out of the restaurant by emergency workers. (Real ones, not staffers playing dress up.)

Basso, who calls himself a “board-certified burgerologist” working on the front lines to rid the world of anorexia and sobriety, says he doesn’t really worry about liability issues or one of his “patients” suing him.

“Unlike cigarettes, I have had warnings labels since Day 1 when we opened in 2005 telling people how bad our food is for you. I think that skirts any liability we might have.”

As for his critics, Basso says that the restaurant says more about the diners than it does about the ownership. He said he is posting signs throughout the restaurant promoting the new spot in the Guinness World Records book, and he makes no secret of the burger’s eye-popping calorie count. “So what is it about someone who sees that sign and sees that this burger has 9,993 calories in it, and that person says ‘I want one of those.’

“I tell you, we attract that very bleeding edge, that avant-garde of risk takers.”

© Copyright © The Vancouver Sun

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It's to be expected when your bombarded daily with comercials all screaming consume, consume, consume! Food comercials that target specific age groups, ethnic foods, fast foods. It's like being slowly hypnotized and indoctrinated throughout your whole life. Small wonder we are turning into a country full of potential heart attacks. :sadno:

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Are you suggesting that the government should dictate what and where we eat now?

Should we have a daily calorie limit card determined by your health? Government issued of course.

If everything we did or consumed was controlled for us just think of all the money we'd save!!

Anyways...on topic.....I've actually gone away from beef burgers and enjoy veggie ones more.

Especially these ones:

IMG_0222.JPG

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