After 15 years as a Las Vegas landmark, the Heart Attack Grill on Fremont Street is closing.
In a notice posted to the Heart Attack Grill website, the restaurant’s operators said they will not be renewing its lease. In the announcement, they also allege that middle-class visitors are being priced out of Vegas by “corporate greed.”
“The decision stems from the reality that major casinos have intentionally priced the average person out of the quintessential American experience of affordable indulgence,” reads part of the message. “The soul of Las Vegas has been replaced by corporate greed.”
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Heart Attack Grill has made headlines in the past for its unabashed promotion of high-fat, high-calorie cuisine. Menu items included onion rings, fries, milkshakes and its signature chili-topped “Bypass Burgers,” which ranged from a Single Bypass (one half-pound beef patty) to an Octuple Bypass (with eight patties). The latter burger could also be supplemented with as many as 40 slices of bacon.
Customers weighing over 350 pounds were also entitled to unlimited Single Bypass burgers for free as long as they purchased a drink with each one.
The restaurant proudly leaned into its reputation, with waitresses dressing like nurses and customers being asked to don hospital gowns during their visit.
“We purposely try to generate controversy, there’s no question about that,” owner Jon Basso once told Entrepreneur in 2007.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Heart Attack Grill came under fire from health-conscious groups. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) also once asked a Las Vegas official to suspend its business license after a frequent guest suffered a heart attack and died outside the restaurant, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in 2013.
“[His death] isn’t going to stop us from what we’re doing. People have got to live their lives,” Basso told the Las Vegas Sun at the time.
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In the closure announcement posted Monday, the operators of Heart Attack Grill also blamed what they viewed as the changing cultural landscape of Las Vegas.
“Our core value, ‘eat big and laugh loud,’ no longer fits a city peddling forty-dollar ‘artisanal avocado toast,’” reads the post. “The honest, heavy-duty calories that built our reputation are now considered gauche by a city that has excluded the middle class and lost its swagger in the process.”
The Heart Attack further joked about being “proud” of its “impact on America’s waistline,” and hinted that another new venture may be forthcoming.
“This is not the end of the world’s most controversial restaurant; it’s merely the beginning of a new chapter. We are seeking new opportunities to continue our high-calorie mission. We look forward to finding new communities that still appreciate a Bypass Burger and the freedom to feast without apology,” the statement concluded.
The statement did not include any details concerning a timeline for the restaurant’s closure.
The Heart Attack Grill had first opened in Arizona in 2005, but closed in 2011. The Las Vegas location opened later that year on the corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard.
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