Toronto’s Dangerous Dan’s Diner, home of the Coronary Burger Special, may be aggressively gluttonous. But the eatery seems lightweight in comparison with the Heart Attack Grill in Arizona, where customers who weigh more than 350 pounds eat for free.
The medically-themed restaurant, where diners shuffle around in hospital gowns and waiters dress in fetish-like nurse costumes, advertises a “taste worth dying for” with offerings like the towering Quadruple Bypass Burger, Flatliner Fries and Jolt Cola.
Its new YouTube commercial, which features the restaurant’s 570-lb spokesman, warns the side effects of eating there “may include sudden weight gain, repeated increase of wardrobe size, back pain, male breast growth, loss of sexual partners, lung cancer, tooth decay, liver sclerosis, stroke, and an inability to see your penis.”
It adds: “In some cases, mild death may occur.”
In a video published online by The Wall Street Journal, the restaurant’s owner Jon Basso admits that preaching reckless abandon might not be responsible, but he says at least he’s upfront about the health risks.
“Do I have concerns or moral conflicts with serving high-calories to people? No more than McDonald’s. No more than Burger King, because the caloric content is equivalent,” he says. “I’m simply doing so with an honest message.”
Is it okay to glorify gluttony if you’re candid about the consequences? What do you think?
