Pedestrians pass by the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas. (AP)
The unofficial spokesman for the infamous Las Vegas restaurant Heart Attack Grill has, you guessed it, died of a heart attack.
John Alleman, 52, was waiting for a bus in front of the restaurant last week when he suffered cardiac arrest and was removed from life support Monday afternoon, the restaurant’s owner Jon Basso told the Las Vegas Sun.
The Heart Attack Grill’s slogan is “Taste Worth Dying For” and it is known for it’s medical theme and high-caloric menu, which features items like the record-breaking 9,982-calorie, 3-pound Quadruple Bypass Burger.
The restaurant features waitresses dressed as sexy nurses and has a “diet program” where they “prescribe great-tasting, high-calorie meals including the Double Bypass Burger, Flatliner Fries, Full Sugar Coke, Butterfat Shake and no-filter cigarettes!”
Alleman was prescribed such foods so often that he was featured on official clothing from the Heart Attack Grill where he was depicted as “Patient John” even though he was never on the restaurant’s payroll.
Despite his unofficial status, Alleman would stand outside of the restaurant hawking burgers when he wasn’t working as a security guard at an abandoned high-rise construction site.
“He never missed a day, even on Christmas,” Basso said. “He lived, ate and breathed the Heart Attack Grill.”
Alleman is not the first unofficial spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill to die too young — in 2011 575-pound Blair “Gentle Giant” River died of flu-related pneumonia.
Shortly after River’s death, a man had a heart attack in the restaurant prompting customers to laugh and take pictures of what they though was a publicity stunt.
And then in April of 2012, a woman in her 40s collapsed eating a double bypass burger, smoking cigarettes and having a margarita.
Besides setting calorie count records, Heart Attack Grill also has a history of litigation as it sued New York’s venerable 2nd Avenue Deli over it’s latke and cold cut “Instant Heart Attack Sandwich” for copyright infringement.
Luckily for the Manhattan institution a judge ruled in their favor and the restaurant even introduced a “Triple Bypass Sandwich.”
Even though Basso called Alleman’s death a “wake-up call,” he said that there are no plans to cut back on the restaurant’s extreme ways.
“(Alleman’s death) isn’t going to stop us from what we’re doing. People have got to live their lives,” Basso said.