Poor Ivan, I remember him well. I grew up about five miles away.
Getting back to Vegas, the Heart Attack Grill on Fremont, famous for its gratuitously high-calorie portions (the smallest item on the menu is a half-pound bacon chili cheeseburger with fries cooked in lard), its waitresses who dress in nurse fetish outfits and paddle you if you don’t clean your plate, and letting you eat for free if you weigh more than 350 lbs., is closing and looking for a new home after the owner decided that Vegas has become too gentrified for his business model.
The Heart Attack Grill will not be renewing its long term lease. This decision stems from the reality that major casinos have intentionally priced the average person out of the quintessential American experience of affordable indulgence. The soul of Las Vegas has been replaced by corporate greed.
Our core value, “eat big and laugh loud,” no longer fits a city peddling forty-dollar “artisanal avocado toast.” 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.
We’re proud of our 21 year impact on America’s waistline. The obesity rate has risen from 30% in 2005 to nearly 45% today, and we pat ourselves on the back for leading the charge! For those loyal to HAG, do not despair. This is not the end of the world’s most controversial restaurant; it is 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.
Went there twice. It’s not the best burger I ever had, but it was dang tasty and a fun experience.
Sounds like he agrees with my assessment above.
So you didn’t clean your plate?
Nah, not into spankings. I did see one guy get paddled while I was there. They would sell you the paddle afterward if you wanted.
The whole place had a hospital theme even aside from the waitresses in nurse costumes - they’d weigh you in at the front door and make you put on a hospital gown. The male staff would be dressed in white lab coats and scrubs. If you ordered a shot it came in a pill bottle with a “prescription” on the label like “drink until the old lady at the bar looks hot”. They sold milkshakes made of butterfat spiked with vodka, they’d serve wine in an IV bag, and they had a wide selection of malt liquors, Jolt Cola, and hard Dole Whip as beverage options. If you could finish one of their triple-patty burgers (supposedly about 5,000 calories by itself, and the largest one they offered came with eight) or larger by yourself, they’d push you out to your car/taxi in a wheelchair. And if you weren’t in the mood for a burger, they had a foot-long bacon-wrapped deep-fried chili cheese dog as an alternative. At least two people ACTUALLY suffered fatal heart attacks while eating there. Just a piece of gauche, tacky reveling-in-one’s-own-excess that’s vanishing as Vegas goes more and more ultra-luxe.
Thinking about Las Vegas, the Mirage. I spent many vacations there. Great place, comfortable rooms, nice pool and poolside bar. Excellent race and sports book.
Covid happened, and when it was over, I looked into the Mirage again. Nope, not this time (May, 2023).
I did visit the Mirage on my visit, though I was staying elsewhere. The Mirage was sad. Half the casino floor was blocked off. The buffet was gone. There were card game tables in the race and sports book. It was hanging on by a thread, knowing the axe was going to drop at any time.
Never mind. I have many happy memories of my visits there.
The Mirage was being closed down at the time to be remodeled into the Hard Rock. I don’t believe it’s finished yet. As I mentioned above, I’ll miss the Siegfried & Roy dolphin and tiger habitat, and the satellite location of NYC’s Carnegie Deli that they had there. (AMAZING pastrami sandwich.)
I did enjoy the Siegfried and Roy dolphin and tiger habitat (the tigers more than the dolphins, and I remember watching a tiger destroy a cardboard box just by playing with it). I also got to meet Siegfried himself on my visit. Nice gentleman, we discussed animal conservation.
And the Carnegie Deli! Oh, yeah! Wonderful pastrami sandwiches. Huge, to the point where you might as well use a knife and fork, because unless you had a giant mouth, you were not going to be able to eat them. Never mind, however I ate them, I finished them all. Coleslaw could have been better, but it was acceptable. Complimentary dill pickles, just like in New York. I never hesitated to recommend the Carnegie at the Mirage to friends travelling to Vegas.
Remember BVD/LVB Burgers at the Mirage? BVD’s Tex-Mex burger couldn’t be equalled, but LVB’s standard ordinary burger was amazing too. Couple it with fries and a cold draught beer, and there’s a meal.
So many happy memories of the Mirage. And now it’s gone.
Same here. I visited back in 1989. I had to hike quite a ways up to get to the ice caves, which I gather were actually close to the trailhead back in the old days.
I thought the ice caves had completely melted, but from your statement there must be some remnant much higher up.
For the record, the Carnegie Deli’s original Manhattan location closed in 2016. (Wikipedia says there’s still an outpost operating at Madison Square Garden.)
W Hollywood and the Pines
SoCal: Lion Country Safari, now Irvine Meadows amphitheater.
Also the Los Angeles version of Busch Gardens.
Edit: actually in Van Nuys.
Same here, we needed gas while driving west from Willcox last month so it was the obvious place to stop. But we didn’t go into the exhibit.
I’ve been to a couple of amusement parks that are now closed. Six Flags America, was Wild World when I was a kid, was my home park so I went many times.
Conneaut Lake Park may still be there, but not like it was when I was there years ago. The new owners destroyed one of the classic coasters there.
I believe I was at Museum of the Moving Image in London in 1993. They had live actors in a few spots that would interact with you.
I’m sure I’ve been to a few other places as a kid, but I don’t remember them now.
Back in the 70s the family regularly took holidays along the south coast of Victoria and often drove along the Great Ocean Road to Port Campbell and see The Twelve Apostles which are limestone stacks in the ocean just offshore
When we were visiting there were 9 of them (there probably never have been 12) but there are only 7 now as two collapsed in the 2000s.
For another instance, in 1994 we went for a boat tour through the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River in China. Construction of the monumental structure which now dams the region had just been started.
All this discussion about The Thing made me curious. According to Roadside America, “The Thing has been a tourist attraction since 1950” which, I presume, means it originally capitalized on the Phil Harris novelty song.
Two come to mind:
- Geauga Lake Amusement Park. While it didn’t have the number/quality of coasters that Cedar Point has, it was much cheaper and much closer. Growing up ('80s and '90s), we could go to Geauga like 2-3 times a summer, whereas Cedar Point was something that you saved up for a senior class trip. Plus, IMO, it had a better water park than Cedar Point. Geauga Lake closed in 2007, I think.
- Arecebo Telescope. While a serious science installation, it was a great tourist attraction as well. I’m glad I got to see it before it collapsed.
Or maybe the James Arness movie.
Before the Internet, I was almost certain The Thing? was a gag with a VW jeep at the end of the tour. I think I conflated it with Hitler’s car which was a muddled recollection of some people who had paid to get in.
I came across an extinct attraction I wish I had been able to see when it was open: the Wairere Adventure Park Camera Obscura.
According to a local gent who happened to be passing by this was an add-on attraction to the Wairere Boulders Nature Preserve. I guess visitors were more interested in clambering around rock formations and kayaking than huddling in a dark room to look at projected images from outside.