Restaurant's Nightmare - Diner's Heart Attack

By Tiffany Hsu

February 15, 2012

In one of the more unfortunate cases of a company living up to its name, a man dining at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas had exactly what was on the menu: A heart attack.

The diner was eating a “Triple Bypass Burger” -- which includes 1.5 pounds of beef and a dozen bacon slices -- this weekend when he began complaining of chest pains, according to a report from FOX5. Paramedics quickly arrived to treat the customer, who is now recovering.

The restaurant opened in the fall and quickly made headlines for its fatty foods, with meals that regularly feature nearly 10,000 calories. Servers are dressed – scantily – as “nurses” who take “prescriptions” from their “patients.”

“Patients” who weigh more than 350 pounds eat for free. “Taste worth dying for!,” the restaurant’s website crows.

The owner, “Doctor” Jon Basso -- who doesn’t actually have a medical background -- said the incident was “horrible."

"It’s not anything to be taken lightly.”

He said the restaurant has warnings about its bad-for-you food on its door and menu but was still a “full house” midday Wednesday.

Basso blasted tourists and others who had mocked the customer, saying they “should be sensitive to the poor guy -- he’s got a mom somewhere.”

“I don’t mind if people demonize me because that’s part of our shtick -- we’re the bad guys of the hamburger industry,” Basso said.

But the eatery is far from the only one that has recently reveled in culinary excess. A number of restaurants have bucked the trend toward healthier food that currently has chains such as McDonald’s boasting of their farm-fresh produce and low-calorie options.

Witness Jack in the Box’s new bacon milkshake, which registers at 1,081 calories for 24 ounces -- or the equivalent of two KFC Double Down sandwiches.

Carl’s Jr. owner CKE is famously unrepentant about its “big fat” burgers, even launching a series of commercials last year highlighting its indulgent menu offerings to its core “young, hungry guy” audience. (But not long after, the chain introduced a line of leaner turkey burgers.)

Even after celebrity chef Paula Deen acknowledged her Type 2 diabetes diagnosis and began repping diabetes drug-maker Novo Nordisk this year, she continued to plug her signature buttery-drenched recipes.

There's a real double standard in the food business. Diners are encouraged to eat healthy but then are faced with menus that are fat and calorie laden.