Fire up the grill! September 18 is Cheeseburger Day. Whether you prefer American, Swiss, or Cheddar, slap a slice on a burger today and celebrate! I’ll even okay some bacon. Though it seems like the cheeseburger has been around forever, it’s actually a rather young sandwich, coming about only in the last century. As with any time-honored tradition, though, there are varying accounts of the cheeseburger’s beginnings.
Time magazine reported that Lionel Clark Sternberger invented the cheeseburger when they published his obituary in 1964. According to accounts, he created the concoction at the “hungry age of 16″ (about 1924) in Pasadena, California. Sternberger went on to run a burger joint called The Rite Spot on Route 66 before he died at age 56 of complications following diabetes.
Louisville, Kentucky begs to differ. Louisville claims the cheeseburger was invented on Newburg Road in 1934 when Mr. Kaelin asked his wife Margaret to put a slice of American cheese on his burger. She lovingly obliged and, as they say, a legend was born.
Whenever and however it was created, the cheeseburger quickly became an American favorite. McDonald’s makes a killing on them, even in a bad economy, and it’s a top choice for cookouts. What’s the ultimate sign of the success of the cheeseburger? There’s even been a song written telling the tale of a young man’s vigil at a drive-through waiting for his very own cheeseburger. If that doesn’t prove iconic permanence, I don’t know what does.
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[...] convinced that the nation’s obsession with cheeseburgers has less to do with ground beef and more to do with the nectar of the Gods: ketchup. At our [...]