LAS VEGAS — Heart Attack Grill, the upscale Las Vegas restaurant known for its giant “Bypass” burger and hospital-themed contraptions, has closed, citing rising costs and what it called “corporate greed.”
The closure ends the downtown venue’s 15-year run at the Neonopolis shopping mall and marks a turning point for one of the Strip’s most controversial attractions, which drew both crowds and criticism for celebrating the excesses and history of a real-life health scare.
Heart Attack Grill has built a brand around excess and spectacle, offering an oversized menu including double and octopus bypass burgers and “flatliner” fries.
Customers, known as “patients,” wore hospital gowns while eating, and staff dressed as nurses. Customers who didn’t finish their meals were publicly spanked, and customers weighing more than 350 pounds were given free unlimited food after stepping on a scale outside.
“Major casinos are intentionally pricing the average person.”
Restaurant owner John Basso told SFGate that the move is not intended to “destroy Las Vegas as a community,” but reflects broader changes in costs for the city. Basso said he is looking for investors and landlords for potential sites in other cities.
“This decision stems from the reality that major casinos intentionally underprice the quintessential American experience that the average person enjoys at an affordable price,” the restaurant said in a statement on its website. “We look forward to finding a new community that still appreciates Bypass Burger and the freedom to eat without apology.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the restaurant for further comment.
Controversies and past tragedies
The restaurant originally started in Tempe, Arizona, and moved to downtown Las Vegas in 2011, according to KSNV. The work quickly attracted scrutiny for its themes and health risks.
In 2012, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine called for its closure, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That same year, one customer was hospitalized after eating a 6,000-calorie hamburger, and a few months later another customer had a similar emergency.
In February 2013, John Aleman, 52, a patron and unofficial spokesperson for the restaurant, died of what appeared to be a heart attack outside the venue, USA TODAY reported at the time. Blair River, known years earlier as the “Gentle Giant” of restaurants, died of influenza-related pneumonia in March 2011.
