Heart Attack Grill's 'mascot' dies

Well, hi there. How're you faring? Better'n  John Alleman, anyway, I'll wager. Pour some Arabica juice into your mug and munch on a low-fat, virtual muffin, why don't'cha? Say...if you were reading my blog over a year ago, you may remember I did a feature on the Heart Attack Grill - a chain in the USA that produces monster burgers. Well, unfortunately, but predictably maybe, the unofficial spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas has died of a heart attack. He was the second unpaid mascot to die in the past two years.
 

John Alleman, 52, suffered an attack while waiting at a bus stop in front of the diner last week. He was taken off life support Monday, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

The medically themed diner is famous for its huge hamburgers, extra-fat milkshakes and fries cooked in lard. It uses the tagline: "Taste worth dying for."

Owner Jon Basso told the Sun that Alleman came to the restaurant daily and encouraged passing tourists to try its calorie-laden offerings.

"He never missed a day, even on Christmas," Basso said. "People just loved him. He connected with people in a real way."

Alleman became an unofficial mascot for the restaurant, which features waitresses in nurse garb. His caricature as "patient John" graced its merchandise and menus.

In 2011, another unofficial spokesman, a 575-pound man named Blair River, died at age 29. At the time, friends said pneumonia may have been the cause of death.

In 2012, a man in his 40s was hospitalized after he began sweating and shaking while eating a 6,000-calorie Triple Bypass burger at the downtown Las Vegas restaurant.

The ominously named diner features tongue-in-cheek health warnings and casts customers as patients. Eaters are given surgical gowns as they choose from a calorically extravagant menu.

Basso said Alleman weighed about 180 pounds and his death showed heart attacks can happen to anyone. 

All I can say is that he was warned and chose to indulge daily. He did what he liked doing - eating huge burgers and he paid the price...or did he? Hold on a minute. Let's think this one out. Hmmm.... the other people died in Las Vegas too, yet there are Heart Attack Grills in many cities. Maybe it's not the food at all. Maybe it's the pollution in Vegas. What'd'ya think? I hate to see a good burger maligned!

See ya, eh!

Bob