A Quick Demise for the Heart Attack Grill on the Strip

Opening and closing within less than two months, almost all traces of the Heart Attack Grill’s expansion to Las Vegas Boulevard have now been erased. The downtown fixture quietly moved into the 9,000-square-foot former home of the Pete Rose Bar & Grill earlier this year and just as silently has departed.

On paper, pairing the Strip with restaurant creator and frontman Jon Basso appeared a perfect combination, rife for Basso’s Barnum-esque publicity stunts and an outrageous premise that has been luring in the curious since 2011.

Despite local murmurings the grill could return later in the year, all signage has been removed and the interior space is being torn up for a future tenant. An electronic "cattle" scale on the south side of the building has also been dismantled. Guests weighing more than 350 pounds on the scale were eligible to walk inside and dine on free burgers.

Bradley Martin

Heart Attack Grill at Hawaiian Marketplace - Photo: Bradley Martin

Downtown, the Heart Attack Grill remains a very popular tourist attraction, featuring 8,000-calorie burgers, waitresses dressed as "nurses," public spankings for customers unable to finish their meals and an unapologetic menu including "Flatliner Fries (cooked in pure lard) and the Coronary Dog, Lucky Strike no filter cigarettes, alcohol, Butterfat Milkshakes, full sugar Coca-Cola, and candy cigarettes for the kids."

No replacement for the grill has been announced. Elsewhere at the Marketplace, Pineapple Park, best known for whipping up Dole soft serve has been replaced by Tbaar, serving bubble tea, fruit smoothies and fruit and vegetable juices. And right by the south entrance, a Krispy Kreme outpost is now shuttered and remains vacant.

Next for the retail center, the second Las Vegas location for New York’s Papaya King, taking over the former site of Fukuburger and Pacific Creationz Hawaiian Kitchen.