The Heart Attack Grill
is a hospital themed restaurant in Chandler Arizona, which has become
internationally famous for embracing and promoting an unhealthy diet of
incredibly large hamburgers. Customers are referred to as "patients,"
orders as "prescriptions," and the waitresses as "nurses."
The menu includes the Single Bypass Burger,
Double Bypass Burger,
Triple Bypass Burger,
and the Quadruple Bypass Burger,
ranging from half a pound to two pounds of beef. Also on the menu are "Flatliner
Fries" (cooked in pure lard), no filter cigarettes, hard liquor, beer,
and full sugar coke.
The menu names imply coronary artery bypass
surgery, and refer to the danger of developing atherosclerosis from the
food's high proportion of saturated fat and excessive caloric content.
The Quadruple Bypass Burger
has been quoted at around 8,000 calories!
One the restaurants most celebrated (and widely
publicized) gimmicks is the free wheelchair service provided to those
"patients" who successfully finish the Triple or Quadruple Bypass Burger.
Amidst a flurry of photography from tourist bystanders the "patients"
are pushed in a wheelchair out to their cars by the nurse of their
choice.
Founded in December of 2005 by Dr. Jon, a non AMA
recognized physician. He has been glorified as the freedom fighting arch
enemy of political correctness by some, and demonized as a charlatan
"nutritional pornographer" by others, Dr. Jon can be found each day, at
the griddle, actually flipping hamburgers in his white doctor's lab coat
and stethoscope.
The restaurant has found itself in a continual
state of self defense against various activist groups and branches of
state government. Most notable was a very public threat closure from the
Arizona Attorney
General's in late 2006.
The controversy hit a crescendo when Dr. Jon was
arrested after having attempted to open a live fire hose on a group of
picketing nurses. Rush Limbaugh, Geraldo Rivera, and major networks from
over sixty countries went live with the story, in a non-stop media
frenzy that lasted for months on end.
A compromise was finally reached when Dr. Jon put
a disclaimer on his website stating, "The use of the word 'nurse'
above is only intended as a parody. None of the women pictured on our
website actually have any medical training, nor do they attempt to
provide any real medical services. It should be made clear that the
Heart Attack Grill
and all its employees do not offer any therapeutic treatments".
Despite the obvious animosity between the Heart
Attack Grill,
and various Nursing Associations, Dr. Jon has always taken time in each
and every television interview to point out that we are absolutely in
the midst of a severe global nurse shortage. "It's a real crisis!"
says Dr. Jon, "Each one of us has a duty to help. I view my part is
to draw attention to the problem by playing the role of the villain".
One may question whether Dr. Jon's kind words are
sincere, considering the underlying motive that everyone can plainly
see... money! No matter which side of the debate the general public
finds itself, one thing is certain, upon visiting Arizona they all seem
to make the pilgrimage for a burger and fries at what is perhaps the
worlds most politically incorrect restaurant!
The future of the restaurant, according to Dr.
Jon, lies in its ability to successfully transition into a diet center.
With sights set firmly upon competing head to head with established
weight loss giants such as Jenny Craig,
Nutri-System,
and Weight Watchers,
he pays little attention to nay saying critics.
According to Dr. Jon, "The new Heart Attack
Grill
Diet Centers will offer the American public something that no other
program has ever been able to do... a diet program that you actually
enjoy and can stick with for a lifetime!" He did though
conveniently fail to mention just how long the "lifetime" of the clients
might be.
Dr. Jon's most recent fitness book, the Heart
Attack Grill
Diet, which teaches readers how to "Eat, Drink, and Smoke their way to
Better Health", has not been well received due to its actual advocating
of cigarettes, hard liquor, and fornication with girls of a barely legal
age.
On
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