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Hefty Heart Attack Grill Spokesman Dies At 29

The Truth About The Famous Heart Attack Grill

Hefty Heart Attack Grill spokesman, Blair River, died Tuesday at age 29.

The Heart Attack Grill

March 4, 2011 — Blair River, the 575-pound spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill, an Arizona restaurant that serves shamelessly high-calorie burgers and fries, died Tuesday at the age of 29, following a bout of the flu.

At 6 feet 8 inches tall, River garnered celebrity as the grill’s “Gentle Giant” when he became the face and advertising star of the medically themed restaurant — famous for its triple-bypass burgers, flatliner lard fries and server “nurses” donning uniforms fit for adult films.

River came down with the flu last week, and after four days in the hospital, he succumbed to pneumonia, says Jon Basso, owner of the grill and close friend of River .Basso described River’s death as “tragic,” because he was a “young creative genius, a promising man whose life got cut short because he carried extra weight. Had he been thin, he would have had a tenfold opportunity to survive the pneumonia.”

Though Basso goes by “Dr. Jon,” in line with the restaurant’s medical theme, he is not medically trained and so can’t speak to the role obesity might have played in River’s illness. The official cause of death for the hamburger model is still unknown.

Medical professionals wouldn’t necessarily disagree with this link, however.

Heart Attack Grill Wants You To Know Its Food Will Kill You

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Jon Basso, founder of the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas, has made a career of serving unhealthy food, and he wants to make sure everyone knows his food will kill you. And to prove it, he brought in a bag of the cremated remains of a customer who died at his restaurant.

Bassos restaurant is known for its sexy nurse server outfits, doublebypass burgers and free meals for customers weighing 350 pounds or more. Some of its menu items include a vodka butterfat shake made with chocolate and vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, marshmallow bacon, cookie dough, pumpkin pie, cake and espresso; an octuple-bypass burger with 40 slices of bacon; and a massive half-pound chili coronary dog with bacon.

The unofficial spokesman for the restaurant died of a heart attack in February, and a woman collapsed in the restaurant a month later while drinking a margarita and smoking one of the cigarettes the restaurant sells.

I am here with the cremated remains of a person who died at my restaurant, Basso told Bloomberg Television, dressed in a white doctors coat. I will tell you something: He died of a heart attack at my restaurant and I am putting that bag clearly on the table. I wish that Burger King and everyone else will do the same thing.

When Bassos interviewer asked if he ate his own food, he replied that he liked burgers and beer, but wouldnt explicitly say he ate at his own restaurant.

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Legal Actions Against Competitors

When youre trying to become the best death-by-food restaurant, you need to do everything in your power to keep that title, and Jon Basso has done exactly that ever since he opened the restaurant. He has taken numerous legal actions against other chains trying to compete with his one-of-a-kind outrageous brand. Notably, a burger joint called Heart Attack Shack, which opened in Chattanooga, Tennessee, back in 2017. Basso sued over trademark infringement. During his lawsuit, Basso couldnt comment much on the matter, and it was noted that the only real resemblance;between the two restaurants was the name, however the Heart Attack Shack did end up closing its door.;Surprisingly or not this wasnt the first time Heart Attack Grill took action in court to settle matters. A;Florida deli called Heart Stoppers Grill was sued for having;an Instant Heart Attack Sandwich on their menu. However, this time, the judge ruled in the delis favor, and Basso lost his copyright infringement case in New York federal court. Since then, the deli has even added a Triple Bypass Sandwich, just to rub it in Heart Attack Grills face even more.;

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Employees Arent Always Comfortable

As a hospital-themed restaurant, Heart Attack Grill goes all out. From the hospital gowns to the waitresses nurse outfits, everything is designed to make your experience as accurate as possible. But, it turns out, its not all employees who feel the same hospitality when they put on their uniforms. One of the reasons why is the fact that, while theyre dressed as sexy nurses, waitresses need to spank customers who cant finish their meal. While this gimmick is part of their contract, some patients make their task a little harder by, well, taking advantage of that punishment, which obviously can make the staff pretty uncomfortable. There are some other pretty distressing events that occur every day at the restaurant, and a former hostess shared some of her experiences with a news outlet. She said that while working one day, a;customer passed out, and an ambulance had to be called. Instead of caring for the customer, her manager made her take out her cell phone and record the whole thing to send it to the news, in hopes that it would bring in some new customers. Perhaps showing a little more bedside manner would have been better in this case, but as you know by now, business comes first at Heart Attack Grill .;

Reviews For Heart Attack Grill

Heart Attack Grill: Taste Worth Dying For?

i like the chilli cheese fries but everything else can make you gain like 15 pounds the waitress are terrible. they go around and flirt with people. one of them even flirted with my husband the food have a lot of caloris and its not good for you. i do not reccomend this place if you like being healthy.

Always a fun time. The ambiance is fun and entertaining. Everyone around you is having a great time. The food is really great. I dont even like hamburgers but Ill definitely eat one here. The chili is good and the bacon is not the nasty thin ones. I love the wine in the IV. This is now a regular staple when I visit LV. The wait is all dependent on the day but its worth it. Ive never had a bad experience with customer service.

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Burgers And Fries Side Of Social Commentary

At the same time, Basso is providing the kind of food that epitomizes the unhealthy fast-food American diet, and he makes his living doing it.

“The Heart Attack Grill can be viewed as absolutely evil. Each person takes it differently. I genuinely hope that people continue to eat in a sinful way, but moderately. I don’t want to see everyone come into my restaurant every day,” he says. “It’s a once a week, cheat day thing.”

Here’s How The Heart Attack Grill Came About

The Heart Attack Grill officially opened in 2006, and it wasn’t always in Las Vegas it started out in nearby Tempe, Arizona. The mastermind behind the concept is Jon Basso who goes by “Dr. Jon, chief surgeon” when he’s talking about his culinary creation . According to Entrepreneur, he didn’t actually come up with the idea for the grill when he was looking for his great money-making idea he wrote about it as a part of his marketing thesis.

The entire idea was built around controversy; Basso himself says, “I tell everybody, ‘Don’t come here every day of the week; it’ll kill you.'”

When the marketing thesis turned into reality, it was a burger joint serving up 8,000-calorie burgers and not just any old fries, but fries cooked in lard. At a time when many people were getting more health-conscious and the obesity crisis in America was getting more and more attention, a restaurant that advertised they had a “taste worth dying for” was, of course, just as controversial as he’d hoped. Consequently, he and his restaurant made national headlines… even though that aside from his web site, he’s never spent any money on advertising.

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Heart Attack Grill Has Sued A Competitor That’s Also Trying To Kill Customers

As unlikely as it may seem, Heart Attack Grill wasn’t the only restaurant that decided their gimmick was going to be killing their customers. According to Eater, there was also the Heart Attack Shack, a more standard sort of burger joint in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Basso and the Heart Attack Grill didn’t take lightly to the competition and sued over trademark infringement. At the time, Basso couldn’t comment on the lawsuit , and if you’re hoping to visit the place that caused all the fuss, we’ll have to disappoint: their Yelp says they’re closed.

They’re not the only ones Jon Basso has sued, either. He’s also gone after a Florida eatery called Heart Stoppers Grill , and NYC’s 2nd Avenue Deli. Why sue them? They added an “Instant Heart Attack Sandwich” to their menu. Not only did a federal judge rule in the deli’s favor and allow them to keep the sandwich, but since then, they also added a Triple Bypass Sandwich, as well.

Heart Attack Grill 6185 W Chandler Blvd Chandler

T1 Faker and Tyler1 Visit the Heart Attack Grill

If you’re craving some restaurant food in Chandler, then you’ve come to the right place! Heart Attack Grill is known for being an outstanding restaurant.

There are other nearby neighborhoods that Heart Attack Grill in 85226 serves beside Chandler, and they include places like Downtown Chandler, The Octotillo, and Fonte Al Sole. If you want to see a complete list of all restaurants in Chandler, we have you covered!

Looking for other top restaurants in Chandler? More popular places to try are Rocket Burger Subs, Wild Elk Den, or Plant Powered Prep. If you don’t mind traveling a bit, we can also recommend more great places to eat restaurant food in nearby cities. Just give Ooka Hibatchi Grill in Peoria, J Mj in Laveen or Property in Casa Grande a try. Make sure to come back and leave a review at YP.com about what you liked and any recommendations for other users in our community!

After your meal at Heart Attack Grill, don’t forget that Chandler has a ton of amazing restaurants to try. Come back to YP.com and find tons of great take out restaurants in Chandler, fast food restaurants in Chandler, or American restaurants in Chandler.

Don’t forget to tell your friends how your experience went at Heart Attack Grill in Chandler by leaving a review here at YP.com!

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The Heart Attack Grill Is Open And It’s Even More Terrible Than We Imagined

Jenny Block May 13, 2011 5:11PM

A neon sign hangs in the window of a new Dallas burger shop. “Taste worth dying for,” it reads. The neon in the window confirms your suspicion that some less-than-subtle gimmickry is at play: “Over 350 pounds eat free.”It’s the Heart Attack Grill. The first one, in Phoenix, opened its doors in 2005, and they’ve somehow stuck around long enough to expand to Dallas’ West End. It opened today. I stopped by around 1 p.m. today and a “nurse” met me at the door.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “We’re closed. We’re having grill problems. But we’ll be open tomorrow.” I told her I was a reporter and she asked me to hold on. She came back out with owner Jon Basso — “Dr. Jon,” as he likes to call himself.

“Tomorrow’s our real opening. We’re just having a few media today. But come in and I’ll get you a Coke, full sugar, and we can talk.”

“Oh, wait,” he said. “She can’t come in without a gown.” Guests are referred to as patients and a “uniform” is required. A smiling nurse in an outfit two sizes too small and three sizes too short held one out for me and turned me around to tie the strings around my neck.

It’s Not Just The Food That’s Controversial At Heart Attack Grill

Surprisingly, it’s not just the incredibly unhealthy food that makes the Heart Attack Grill controversial it’s also their portrayal of nurses.

According to Entrepreneur, organizations like the Arizona Board of Nursing and the Center for Nursing Advocacy have taken issue with the waitresses dressed in bosom-bearing nurses’ uniforms. In addition to saying it’s degrading to the entire profession, they point out it’s also troublesome that all the women are nurses while the men are doctors outdated gender divisions that the medical profession has been working to overcome.

Individual nurses took it seriously, too, appealing to Arizona’s attorney general’s office to intervene and have owner Jon Basso stop using the uniforms. Basso’s response back in 2006 was less-than-understanding: “If anything, I think it glorifies nurses to be thought of as a physically attractive and desirable individual… There’s a Faye Dunaway, Florence Nightingale hipness to it. Nobody wants to think of themselves as some old battle ax who changes bedpans for a living.”

The state’s Board of Nursing also went after Basso for claiming on his web site that his employees were “nurses,” when none had any medical training whatsoever. Basso refused to remove the title, and instead added a footnote saying that there were no actual medical personnel on staff, and it was all just a joke.

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Prevalence By State And Territory

The following figures were averaged from 2005 to 2007 adult data compiled by the CDC BRFSS program and 20032004 child data from the National Survey of Children’s Health. There is also data from a more recent 2016 CDC study of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.

Care should be taken in interpreting these numbers, because they are based on self-report surveys which asked individuals to report their height and weight. Height is commonly overreported and weight underreported, sometimes resulting in significantly lower estimates. One study estimated the difference between actual and self-reported obesity as 7% among males and 13% among females as of 2002, with the tendency to increase.

The area of the United States with the highest obesity rate is American Samoa .

Except territories, whose data is from the late 2000s to 2010s

Is The Heart Attack Grill Worth The Cardiac Arrest We Say Yes Just For The Fanfare

This is what it

The Heart Attack Grill is not for the faint of heart , but it’s one of Las Vegas’s most popular culinary destinations.

Could a burger be so good it’s worth a heart attack? Put another way, if something is incredibly unhealthy, should one just indulge all the more? The Heart Attack Grill in downtown Las Vegas just might be the most famous tongue-in-cheek restaurant in the world. For many people, it is one of the must-do attractions while engaging in a range of decadent vices while living it up in America’s most famous Sin City.

For sure for the Homer Simpsons of this world, the Heart Attack Grill is paradise – less so for the Lisa Simpsons of this world. Regardless of one’s partiality or otherwise for super unhealthy burgers, one can regard the Heart Attack Grill as just another ridiculous attraction of what makes Vegas, Vegas.

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Extreme Obesity And Flu Risk

Those who are morbidly obese have an increased risk for sudden cardiac death and heart attacks at a younger age, says Dr. Carl Lavie, medical director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at the Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute. “All of this could be worsened with a flu or other respiratory illness.

And research during the H1N1 swine flue epidemic of 2009 suggested that extreme obesity did complicate recovery in flu patients. One study, published in the journal PloS One, found that among those requiring inpatient care for the flu, those with a body mass index of 40 or higher were almost three times more likely to die than those of normal body mass index.

While conditions associated with obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes, have been linked in the past to increased risk of flu complications, this study was the first to find that independent of any other health problems, obesity itself was increasing the risk of death for flu patients.

Effects On Life Expectancy

The United States’ high obesity rate is a major contributor to its relatively low life expectancy relative to other high-income countries. In the US, about 20% of cancer deaths in women and 14% of those in men are due to obesity. It has been suggested that obesity may lead to a halt in the rise in life expectancy observed in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the event that obesity continues to grow in newer generations, a decrease in well being and life span in the future generations may continue to degenerate. According to Olshansky, obesity diminishes “the length of life of people who are severely obese by an estimated 5 to 20 years.” History shows that the number of years lost will continue to grow because the likelihood of obesity in new generations is higher. Children and teens are now experiencing obesity at younger ages. They are eating less healthy and are becoming less active, possibly resulting in less time lived compared to their parents’ . The life expectancy for newer generations can expect to be lower due to obesity and the health risks they can experience at a later age.

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