2nd Avenue Deli Sues To Protect 'Instant Heart Attack' Sandwich

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- There's a cross-country food fight brewing, waged between two restaurants, about whether a sandwich can be called a "heart attack" or a "triple bypass."

The 2nd Avenue Deli said a potential legal challenge to its Instant Heart Attack sandwich isn't kosher.

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A lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court says the Heart Attack Grill restaurant chain has accused the Manhattan deli of stealing its idea to spoof healthy eating with calorie-bomb entrees like the three-patty Triple Bypass Burger. It asks the court to block the Arizona-based restaurant chain from pursuing a trademark infringement case.

"They are basically serving hamburgers, or really cheeseburgers, with a ton of lard. And of course, they're not kosher," Jack Lebewohl, co-owner of the 2nd Avenue Deli, told 1010 WINS. "So we're really not competing with each other, we don't deal with the same customers or anything like that."

The deli's Instant Heart Attack sandwich is a mountain of two potato pancakes and a piled-high choice of corned beef, pastrami, turkey or salami. The price: $23.95.

"They didn't exist when we started serving the Instant Heart Attack," Lebewohl told CBS 2's Magee Hickey.

The deli also has plans for a new Triple Bypass sandwich.

"The Triple Bypass is three potato pancakes making a triple decker," Jack Lebewohl, the father of the co-owner of the 2nd Avenue Deli, told 1010 WINS.

The lawyer for Heart Attack Grill wouldn't talk specifics when asked for comment.

"Although Second Avenue Deli's restaurant may be kosher, the unexpected filing of this lawsuit during settlement discussions is certainly not," the owner said.

A 575-pound man who served as the Heart Attack Grill's spokesman died in March.

"I'm very confident that we will prevail in court, I'm also hopeful that people on the other side will sit down and talk with us and we work it out," Lebewohl said. "I don't think it's necessary to litigate this matter. I'm really a lover, not a fighter."

Do you think the Heart Attack Grill has a case? Sound off below

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