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Denver and the great 'Cheeseburger' dispute
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The monumnet in sight of Denver Skyline
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Even with a food as ubiquitous and popular as the hamburger, few people claim title to its invention. The history of that food goes back beyond even the Earl of Sandwich as far as Genghis Khan and maybe even further. With the hamburger’s close relative the “cheeseburger”, however, the story is a bit different. No one knows for certain when cooks began throwing a slice of cheese on top of their burgers, but there are actually at least three who claim the crown.
The first contender is Lionel C. Sternberger of the “Rite Spot” restaurant in Pasadena, California. Employees of the restaurant back up the claim that sometime between 1924 and 1926, the restaurant made and sold a menu item known as the “Cheese Hamburger”. The main problems with this contention are: 1) there is no documentation, just word of mouth. How can we be certain the employees are telling the truth? And 2) the menu item spoken of is the “Cheese Hamburger” and not the “Cheeseburger”. How can we be certain these are the same things? This may be a legitimate claim but without better documentation, there will always be an asterisk next to the names of Rite Spot and Sternberger.
The next contender comes from Louisville, Kentucky where Charles Kaelin and his wife claim to have sold an item called the “Cheeseburger” at their restaurant, “Kaelin’s”, as early as 1934. For proof, they offer an actual 1934 menu that reads, “Try Kaelin’s Cheese, burgers…15 cents…You’ll like em.” This argument only points out why it is important to always use good grammar and spell check. What is that comma doing there? Is it a typo, or is it meant to separate two, different items? The creative use of language such as the word “em” and the unique method of separation by dot, dot, dot, creates more questions than it answers.
The final contender has the best argument of all because he took the time to patent his discovery. Of course, being from Denver, I am biased toward hometown boy, Louis Ballast. Ballast was the high school dropout and owner of “The Barrel” restaurant on Speer Boulevard near North High School. In 1935, while experimenting with ideas to make a better burger, he melted a slice of cheese over a slider before removing it from the grill. To the best of his knowledge, he was the first to do this and the U.S. Government agreed when they gave him the patent for the word “cheeseburger” around the same time.
Ballast’s argument is legally airtight and relatives claim the only reasons he never tried to enforce his patent was because there were just too many restaurants ignoring the law and he did not know how to go about enforcing his legal rights. In 1974, “The Barrel” closed its door and later burned to the ground. All that remains is a small monument erected in 1987 to honor the restaurant, its owner and the invention of the cheeseburger. History, however, cannot ignore the legacy of Ballast’s first cheeseburger that came with sweet relish, a secret sauce and shredded lettuce all on a toasted bun, even though the dispute lives on.
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Is this the town that created the cheesburger?
This monument marks the spot.
Louis Ballast registered the trademark.
Artist's depiction of "The Barrel".
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