Well, hello to everyone out there in Acorn Land, and I hope your weather is starting to turn a little warmer, and the feeling of summer is right around the corner. Sorry, but I couldn’t resist the little rhyme. To celebrate the carefree days of summer, we here at the Acorn Blog are diving into a controversy that has been debated for many summers. We intend to get to the bottom of this controversy once and for all.
Summertime often brings back memories of fun times and many associate foods that went along with these good feelings. I remember pizza, ice cream, and hotdogs were just some of the delights you could expect during the summer break. Then you have the hamburger and then the almighty cheeseburger, which is the king of all the burgers. My next question is, where was the cheeseburger created?
You know that it was in America somewhere because this food screams USA, but where exactly is still up for debate. It seems that around eight cities are taking credit for being the birthplace of the cheeseburger, but which one is true to have invented this sandwich? After doing exhaustive research and talking to thousands of people, or maybe three, we are getting to the bottom of this delicious mystery. Right away, three cities stand pickles and buns above the rest as to be the true inventor of the cheeseburger. Well, sit right back and keep reading because the results might be clear as a frozen milkshake in the end.
The three cities that claim the cheeseburger as its own are Denver, Colorado, Pasadena, California, and Louisville, Kentucky.
Location 1. Denver, Colorado
The restaurant was the Humpty Dumpty Barrel, and to many, this was the first fast-food burger joint in the town. Remember, this is 1935, and the idea of fast food is still very new in the age where if you wanted something fast to eat, you had to make it yourself. The Humpty Dumpty was located at 2776 N. Speer Blvd in Denver, the junction of two bustling streets, Federal and Speer Boulevard. This location is right across from Denver North High School (Go Vikings), and for a fast-food location, this was a great one. Louis E. Ballast was looking to expand his menu, and what better way than simply adding a slice of American Cheese to an already popular hamburger. Mr. Ballast thought so much of his idea that he legally trademarked the “Cheeseburger” on March 5, 1935. If you visit that location today, you can find a granite block with the details etched in stone to commemorate this achievement dedicated in 1987.
Location 2. Louisville, Kentucky
If you go to Kaelin’s restaurant at 1801 Newburg Road, Louisville, Kentucky, you will see a plaque on the wall stating that this is the birthplace of the cheeseburger. Initially, Kaelin’s was a neighborhood bar, but Carl Kaelin decided to open it up during the day to sell food. This is located next to St. Agnes school; again it seems that the location of schools and food is an excellent idea for a fast-food restaurant …who would have guessed.
Anyhow, during one of these lunch rushes, Carl wanted to change things up and decided to throw a slice of, you guessed it, American Cheese onto one of his hamburgers. This new food quickly caught on, and Carl knew he was onto something big. Kaelin’s started to grow bigger simply because of word of mouth around Louisville, and it’s still on the menu today. All of this happened in 1934. A whole year ahead of the Humpty Dumpty Barrel in Denver, Carl Kaelin never trademarked his cheeseburger idea.
Another interesting tidbit about Kaelin’s is that KFC inventor Harland Sanders himself cooked and sold his famous chicken within the walls of Kaelin’s restaurant in its infancy. Kaelin’s will forever be known as the first business to serve the colonel’s famous recipe in the city of Louisville, Kentucky.
Location 3 Pasadena, California
The Rite Spot, a PASADENA eatery now long gone, is our final contender for what city gets to claim the cheeseburger as its own. The story goes that a local teenage boy, Lionel Sternberger, whose father who owned the Rite Spot sandwich shop, one day decided to put a slice of cheese on a hamburger after he had burnt one side of a patty. Being afraid of his mistake, what does he do? What any red-blooded American would do, cover it up…literally with cheese and ship it out. Young Lionel could always claim that he made a special burger just for the customer, and they would probably think, Wow, now that’s really nice, not knowing the real obfuscation at hand. Just remember, when a teenager does something nice for you, usually, there is a reason behind it. The Acorn Blog idea of the day.
If you could believe it, this new burger was a hit and soon went onto the menu board of the Rite Spot. What should we name this new invention? Let’s see, creamy burger, gooey burger, no. I got it; we will call it, The Aristocratic Burger: The Original Hamburger with Cheese. All I can say is, WHAT??? It’s crazy to call this idea a CHEESE+BURGER when you have the Aristocratic Burger at your disposal.
More importantly, what year did this all happen, you might ask? Even this is in question, and most people put it between 1924 and 1926, well before the Humpty Dumpty Barrel in Denver and Kaelin’s in Louisville.
It seems that there a lot of cities that have their own stories of the mythical cheeseburger creation, but that didn’t stop the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce from officially honoring the Aristocratic Burger; I meant cheeseburger in 2017. A plaque was installed where the Rite Spot once stood, laying claim to the title of “original home of the cheeseburger.” Or was it?
So, where was the cheeseburger first created? In Pasadena, the Rite Spot called it the “Aristocratic Burger,” or some claim it was called the “cheese hamburger,” which may disqualify young Lionel Sternberger on a technicality. It was never officially called a cheeseburger in 1924-1926, but the concept was, in fact, a cheeseburger.
Kaelin’s restaurant in Louisville did come up with the concept a year before Humpty Dumpty Barrel and raved about it in the local community for years. The fact remains that Carl Kaelin didn’t trademark his cheeseburger idea with the patent office to say once and for all, this is our creation. Understandably, he didn’t do this just because America wasn’t such a litigious society in the 1930s, but fortunes have been made and lost simply because of minor oversights like a trademark. A perfect example of this is the creation of the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco as it is known today. An idea will only take you so far, so be careful on who you trust or confide with because your idea could be taken away from you through the legal system.
This leaves us with Louis E. Ballast and the Humpty Dumpty Barrel of Denver. Through the evidence, it’s apparent that he wasn’t the absolute first to create the cheeseburger, but he had sense enough to see that this was going to be a big hit and got the Trademark to the cheeseburger. In essence, he is the creator of the cheeseburger in the eyes of the court, and you must take your hat off to him for doing this.
In the end, does it really matter who was the first to invent the cheeseburger? After all, everyone in the world has heard of it and besides the hotdog, there isn’t anything more American. We are all winners and we think that all the cities who claim the cheeseburger have their own cog in the wheel of innovation. All I can say is God Bless America, and all of us have had a hand in creating the cheeseburger and keeping it an American staple.
The best way to end this discussion is to quote Raque Kaelin, the daughter of Carl Kaelin from Louisville. She was asked by a local reporter what she thought of other historical cheeseburger inventors trying to steal her daddy’s thunder? Her response is priceless. “People were putting cheese on burgers for years, but they didn’t talk about it like we did. We’ve had conversations with (some of the other ‘inventors’). They claim it, and I claim it. But is it really that world-shaking?”