Second Heart Attack Grill 'mascot' dies of heart attack
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The unofficial spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas has died of a heart attack. He was the second unpaid mascot to die in the past two years.
John Alleman, 52, suffered an attack while waiting at a bus stop in front of the diner last week. He was taken off life support Monday, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
The medically themed diner is famous for its huge hamburgers, extra-fat milkshakes and fries cooked in lard. It uses the tagline: "Taste worth dying for."
Owner Jon Basso told the Sun that Alleman came to the restaurant daily and encouraged passing tourists to try its calorie-laden offerings.
"He never missed a day, even on Christmas," Basso said. "People just loved him. He connected with people in a real way."
Alleman became an unofficial mascot for the restaurant, which features waitresses in nurse garb. His caricature as "patient John" graced its merchandise and menus.
In 2011, another unofficial spokesman, a 575-pound man named Blair River, died at age 29. At the time, friends said pneumonia may have been the cause of death.
In 2012, a man in his 40s was hospitalized after he began sweating and shaking while eating a 6,000-calorie Triple Bypass burger at the downtown Las Vegas restaurant.
The ominously named diner features tongue-in-cheek health warnings and casts customers as patients. Eaters are given surgical gowns as they choose from a calorically extravagant menu.
Basso said Alleman weighed about 180 pounds and his death showed heart attacks can happen to anyone.
John Alleman, 52, suffered an attack while waiting at a bus stop in front of the diner last week. He was taken off life support Monday, the Las Vegas Sun reported.
The medically themed diner is famous for its huge hamburgers, extra-fat milkshakes and fries cooked in lard. It uses the tagline: "Taste worth dying for."
Owner Jon Basso told the Sun that Alleman came to the restaurant daily and encouraged passing tourists to try its calorie-laden offerings.
"He never missed a day, even on Christmas," Basso said. "People just loved him. He connected with people in a real way."
Alleman became an unofficial mascot for the restaurant, which features waitresses in nurse garb. His caricature as "patient John" graced its merchandise and menus.
In 2011, another unofficial spokesman, a 575-pound man named Blair River, died at age 29. At the time, friends said pneumonia may have been the cause of death.
In 2012, a man in his 40s was hospitalized after he began sweating and shaking while eating a 6,000-calorie Triple Bypass burger at the downtown Las Vegas restaurant.
The ominously named diner features tongue-in-cheek health warnings and casts customers as patients. Eaters are given surgical gowns as they choose from a calorically extravagant menu.
Basso said Alleman weighed about 180 pounds and his death showed heart attacks can happen to anyone.
Very interesting, I walked by this restaurant several times last week while on vacation in Las Vegas (we stayed on Fremont street at the Fremont, and this place is for sure "downtown"), but the interesting thing is that in the window above the 130 address pane there is a "send hate mail" poster with their mailing address listed. That is not shown here. Photo shop???
Are we sure this isn't all just some scenes from the movie "Idiocracy"? It's hard to believe that something like the HAG can do so well financially while freely and happily admitting that it's killing you.
The whole idea of this place is disgusting. Oh well, "whatever blows your skirt up".
There are a lot of people who eat without watching calories. I blame it on depression. More than 90% of this country is depressed and they look for an instant sugar fix or junk food.
The combination of high fats and high carbs has killed millions, it just rarely does it this fast.
This is sad.... I've been to this place and it's not downtown. It's in the Freemont neighborhood, off the downtown path.Â
@BravesPackersCougzSounders Freemont is downtownÂ
@BravesPackersCougzSounders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Las_Vegas
Can't help it, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, pepsi...
@Windowseat No Pepsi, Coke!
Eating at a restaurant every day that bills itself as "hazardous to your health" is simply begging for a heart attack or some type of cardiovascular problem.
I've never been to the H.A.G., but I'd love to go. With that said, never in a million years would I eat there every day or even every week. That is a splurge restaurant.
I dont know how many of you have eaten there before, but while on a long roadtrip last year, we stopped in Vegas and decided to try it the heart attack grill. I did go for the quadruple bypass burger which was 9,000 calories. Im athletic and overall healthy person. I tried to eat the whole thing as it would be free if I did. Didnt happen, but what myself and my buddy noticed, was a real fuzzy feeling all over our body as we were finishing up eating. Its almost like we can feel the lard clogging up inside us and gave you that feeling that something wasnt normal. (it was like getting a strong buzz from drinking alcohol)Â We did it for the experience which was fun I will say, but its a place I would say do it once and no more.
Like Doxie said, this is not funny. At the same time, if someone wants to be that stupid and play roulette with their health, then so be it when they die or suffer life threatening complications from their irresponsible behavior.
 @northwestsurfer Yeah, but guess who pays for their healthcare while they are still here?  Taxpayers!  Do you know how many obese people I see on disability and medicaid?  Tons (pun)!  Food can be an addiction like any drug or alcohol. Â
That's not funny at all. Â Tongue in cheek health warnings and surgical gowns? Â Hard to believe that with American obesity rates rising to epidemic levels, along with the diseases that accompany it (heart disease, diabetes), someone would market their food as taste worth dying for - much less that people would actually go and eat there, and they probably take their kids too. Â Sad sad sad.
This is not a kids friendly place. The article does not explain that the "nurses" are actually dressed in naughty nurse outfits. That is the motivation for going there, not the food. It is designed to be a hedonistic indulgence.
@Snohomish_G8r That won't stop a lot of parents I see out and about!  We used to go to the movies next to a Hooters, and it was full of little kids.
Hooters is VERY tame compared to this place, but I know what you are saying.
 @Doxie I guess this place is the ultimate middle finger to the "P.C. Food Police".  I do have to admit, in a perverse way I see the humor in it.  I guess that makes me a bad person.  :(
 @K. Coleman Of course you are not a bad person - but I doubt you'd be handing out fliers to get your 6000 calorie burger each day either!  I struggle not to eat fried foods and cheese all the time, but I do manage to keep it under control and balanced.  Balance is really all we should strive for, not a certain body type or weight.
I meant to say there earlier that I probably eat that much in a week...
What a sick concept in itself.
6000 calories in one burger?! Â I don't eat that many calories in a day! Â I would think swallowing a bunch of pills would be an 'easier' suicide. Â Ick....
@Elaine2Â Adds new meaning to a condemned person's last meal when the meal itself is what kills you on the spot.Â
 @Elaine2 I know it's mind boggling isn't it!  :)
Wow - Truth in advertising!
You live by the cheeseburger, you die by the cheeseburger.
"Basso said Alleman weighed about 180 pounds and his death showed heart attacks can happen to anyone."
Â
Anyone in poor cardiovascular condition that regularly shocks their body with extremely high calorie meals and doesn't increase physical activity to compensate, I guess.
Â
There are plenty of unhealthy thin people, but there is no such thing as healthy overweight people.
 @burton It all comes down to what your definition of overweight is.  Most athletes are considered obese by the BMI standards but many are very healthy.
 @burton Actually, there are plenty of healthy overweight people. Studies have proven that one again and again-fitness is more than BMI
Â
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9520154/Fat-but-fit-people-as-healthy-as-normal-weight-ones-research.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110815095034.html
Â
There are dozens more news articles about it.
@CJ @burton I know a guy who used to be disgustingly overweight and sweat all the time; then one day he got tired of being fat and started running. He runs marathons all the time now, and still is fat or overweight in appearance, although not obese by any means. He is healthier than most people I know
@northwestsurfer I had a friend like that.  She was always fit and athletic, always training for or running a marathon, but it looked like she could not walk around the block.  Ironically, she died during a marathon of a heart attack in her 40s, it was quite shocking, but apparently her time to go.  Her autopsy showed heart damage from a previous heart attack too.  She was an awesome person.
 @burton It depends on what you mean by overweight.  If you are 10 or 15 pounds overweight, you can be healthy, and may even make it through an illness better than someone who is thinner.  There are so many factors involved in "health" that it's hard to make a blanket statement like that. Â
I read this and made the mistake of looking at the pictures. I headed right to the freezer, grabbed some patties, and made myself a double bypass.Â
@oldster70Â You did add a few slices of crispy bacon and some grilled onions to that, right?? And Thousand Island dressing on the toasted bun?
Perhaps an AED at each table is in order?
@GHResponder And an aid car in the parking lot?