Jon Basso doesn’t mind that his restaurant could be deadly.

“If you think the burger tastes good enough to die for, come on in and shorten your life,” he said.

Basso and his wife Solveiga, who received an MBA from ASU in 1997, first opened the Heart Attack Grill in late 2005, a restaurant that calls its customers “patients” and holds the motto “taste worth dying for.”

The restaurant hires women as “nurses,” serving customers beer, unfiltered cigarettes, and specialties like the Quadruple Bypass Burger, an 8,000 calorie meal.

“I am the only honest person in the restaurant industry,” Basso said. “I tell you specifically how it is: This is bad for you; this will kill you.”

The Heart Attack Grill relocated to Chandler from Tempe in late March and since then has been looking to expand internationally, Basso said.

It’s currently located near Chandler Boulevard and Kyrene Road.

Customer reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, Basso said.

“Ninety-five percent come in here and they like it,” he said.

Basso said he likes the 5 percent of customers who “hate” his restaurant because they give him free advertising, creating buzz for the restaurant.

“They go around bitching about us to everyone who will listen,” he said.

He added that the restaurant appeals to people in many countries because of its attractive “nurses,” an honest approach to serving unhealthy food, and a menu that Basso says offers customers what they really want.

“There’s no pretension of health care. We don’t serve Diet Coke, we don’t offer lettuce for our burgers — nothing like that,” Basso said. “It’s just purely unhealthy.”

Antonio Dominguez, an attorney for a group of Mexican investors, said he was in talks Monday with Basso about expanding the business to Mexico City this year.

“We think this is an innovative and excellent business idea,” Dominguez said.

Basso called the potential move “exporting obesity.”

Nicole Martin, a communications graduate student, said the business strategy of the restaurant is unethical.

“I’m not a fan of promoting unhealthy lifestyles,” Martin said.

Despite her distaste for the restaurant’s concept, she added that the restaurant should be free to serve customers as it pleases.

“It’s the choice of the consumer,” she said.

The Heart Attack Grill’s Web site touts about not spending money on advertising, and Basso said the restaurant’s unorthodox approach has been successful.

Tommy Roberts, an interdisciplinary studies senior who works as a club promoter, said the restaurant’s promotion of itself as “unhealthy” is smart business.

“It’s a great marketing ploy,” Roberts said.

He added that the waitresses’ nurse costumes are an added bonus.

“That goes in play with this whole ‘sex sells’ [strategy],” he said.

Basso said his restaurant’s theme of unhealthiness has paid off. And hiring exclusively women has created the right atmosphere for the restaurant, he said.

“As long as you’re killing yourself, you might as well have a few sexy nurses,” he said.

Reach the reporter at matt.culbertson@asu.edu.