Which Denver restaurateur was awarded a trademark for the name cheeseburger in 1935?

Denver restaurateur Louis Ballast was awarded a trademark for the name “cheeseburger” in 1935.

Ballast owned the Humpty Dumpty Barrel, a Denver drive-in restaurant associated with the early commercial history of the cheeseburger. His 1935 trademark claim concerned the name itself, not necessarily the first hamburger ever served with cheese. That distinction matters because several restaurants and cooks claimed to have created the food earlier or independently.

Pasadena’s Lionel Sternberger is linked to a cheeseburger served at the Rite Spot in the 1920s, while Kaelin’s Restaurant in Louisville claims a 1934 cheeseburger. Ballast’s importance is therefore primarily legal and commercial: he is the figure associated with securing trademark protection for the word “cheeseburger.”

The trademark story is sometimes simplified into “Ballast invented the cheeseburger,” but that overstates the evidence. The fair quiz answer is Louis Ballast because the question specifically asks about the 1935 trademark award. His restaurant’s claim is commemorated in Denver, even though the broader invention remains disputed.