The Unhealthy Eating Rebellion -- Meet the Disturbed Founder of 'The Heart Attack Grill'

Photo Credit: Zach Fowle

The burgers are free-all day, every day-at the Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, AZ. The only catch is you have to weigh at least 350 lbs. The fake nurse who weighs you is young, hot, and female. All guests, regardless of weight, are called "patients," and are "admitted" by the "nurses," who dress them in bibs that look like hospital gowns. Strategically placed mirrors behind the counter provide patients with heart-stopping views of fake-nurse crotch.

The menu includes unfiltered cigarettes and milkshakes reputed to have the highest fat content in the world, but burgers are the main attraction. They range from the Single through the Quadruple Bypass, based on the number of patties they contain, with two pieces of cheese for each patty, between buns shiny with lard. If you finish an 8,000-calorie Quadruple Bypass Burger, a fake nurse will push you by wheelchair all the way to your car. On a recent visit, Zach Fowle of the Phoenix New Times reported watching one customer eat two Quadruples. "The guy has the meat sweats and looks like he might spew at any minute. It's a good thing he's getting wheeled out, because it looks like he can barely walk," Fowle observed. The burgers come with all-you-can-eat "Flatliner Fries," which are cooked in lard and smothered with cheese and/or gravy.

In every fiber of its being (perhaps fiber is the wrong word), the Heart Attack Grill is a one-fingered salute to the health food movement. That's the idea anyway, according to owner Jon Basso.

A former Jenny Craig weight-loss program franchisee, Basso claims to have eaten a Double Bypass burger every day for the last five years without gaining a pound. Lean physique notwithstanding, Basso considers himself a trailblazer in the rebellion against healthy eating and the development of shameless cholesterol bombs like KFC's Double Down sandwich and Friendly's Grilled Cheese Burger Melt, which features dual grilled cheese sandwiches in lieu of buns.

"I view myself, not as an originator, but to have been the key driving force of this trend. The Heart Attack Grill hit with BIG international publicity in 2006 which gave other restaurateurs the courage to put something of gigantic proportions on their menus," he told me via email.  

Other restaurants have tried to mimic Basso's medical-themed, death-courting business model, and he's sued them all, including establishments like "Heart Stopper Burgers" and the "Flatline Grill." So far he's successfully forced copycats to quit using fake naughty nurses to sell, and celebrate, obscenely unhealthy burgers.

The health food movement began early in the last century in response to a newly industrialized food system that valued flavor and the economics of scale over the health consequences of its products. White bread, sugar, meat, and fat were some of the movement's prime targets. Many of those same foods are now at the core of a new crusade that, for lack of a better term, I'll call the "sick food movement." While the health food movement was a sincere attempt to reform a system that seemed indifferent to health, the sick food movement is a cynical response to any attempt to encourage healthy eating.

The sick food movement has parallels to the Tea Party in that both draw on deep wells of vague dissatisfaction, and both are less articulate about what they're for than what they're against. The common ground is hinted at in the tax line on Heart Attack Grill's receipts, which reads "Obama's Cut." Like many Tea Party talking points, in which relationship with reality is optional, "Obama's Cut" is a flat-out lie -- sales tax has always been state-imposed and not federal. Nonetheless, given that the First Lady has made healthy eating one of her pet projects, and that the President's health care bill has a substantial prevention component, eating poorly has become a patriotic act and rallying cry in the minds of Obama's political opponents.