Feuding Restaurants Want to Give You a Heart Attack

by Josie Raymond · 2010-02-05 16:06:00 UTC
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Can you imagine buying a model of car called the "Shattered Vertebre"? How about pain relievers called "Liver Damagers"? Weird, right? Are you any more likely to eat at a burger joint called the Heart Attack Grill? Or its supposed ripoff Heart Stoppers?

The Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Arizona, which has been open for years and is often featured on TV, is suing Heart Stoppers Sports Grill in Delray Beach, Florida, which opened in December. Apparently this country, where two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, just isn't big enough for two restaurants that joke about killing their customers while slowly killing their customers.

The owners of Heart Stoppers did inquire about a Heart Attack franchise before opening their own place, and the similarities are striking -- waitresses at both are dressed as sexy nurses and both offer free food to patrons over 350 pounds. (Is the humiliating public weigh-in worth saving $8?)

I wouldn't be surprised if the lawsuit was cooked up (ha!) in tandem in order to get publicity. The restaurants themselves are a lot more interesting than a cease and desist letter. The Heart Attack Grill's website declares "Taste Worth Dying For!" Menu offerings include "bypass burgers" -- the quadruple bypass burger has four beef patties. Burgers, of course, come with "flatliner fries." At Heart Stoppers, which is run by a former paramedic and is the more medical of the two, eaters can order chili chest pain fries at tables that look like wheelchairs. Salt and pepper comes out of prescription bottles. The menu declares, "Consumption of our food will definitely lead to obesity."

What do you think: refreshingly brazen or stupidly irresponsible?

Photo credit: HeartAttackGrill.com

Josie Raymond is a Change.org editor who has reported from the streets of the South Bronx, written for several magazines that folded (not her fault) and fixed thousands of typos.
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