Be Careful What You Wish For

Today's guest post is by Peppercommer and RepChatter Co-host, Deb Brown.

We all know that restaurants live or die by their reputation.  Yet, one restaurant, which RepMan wrote about in the past, called the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, is proud of its insane theme and 6,000 calorie Triple Bypass Burger.  Last Wednesday, a man in his 40’s suffered an apparent heart attack while munching on the pound-and-a-half burger and, before the paramedics were called, people thought it was part of the ambiance. After all, when your waitresses and cooks are dressed as nurses and doctors, respectively, you’d think that a guy having a heart attack was probably part of the act, right?  Finally, someone realized at some point that he wasn’t part of the act and was actually dying.  I’m not sure if it was when his eyes rolled back in his head, his lips turned purple, or he just looked too motionless for too long.  Luckily, he’s reportedly recovering in a hospital. 

Now, you would think that might be a loud wake-up call to the owner of this bizarre establishment. Think again.  An anti-meat advocacy group wants to shut down the restaurant.  So does the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. But the owner, Jon Basso, is keeping the killer restaurant open by saying it was built on values our “Founding Fathers intended us to live”…or in this case, die by.

So what does this pound-and-a-half Triple Bypass Burger include besides way too much meat?  How about buns dripped in lard, half an onion cooked in lard, a whole tomato (the only healthy item on the burger), 15 pieces of bacon, cheese and special sauce (which probably contains lard, lard and more lard).  I’m not sure if the man who suffered the heart attack also had the Heart Attack Grill’s side of fries cooked in lard and/or one of the butterfat shakes – as if pure milkshakes weren’t fattening enough.

Apparently, the fact that we have a serious obesity problem in the United States somehow bypassed Las Vegas.