America’s Cheeseburger Paradise

In Colorado, golf and cheeseburgers go together like … well … cheese and burgers.

While living in Aspen in the 1970s, a songwriter and amateur golfer wrote a classic Colorado tune about a guy with good dietary intentions who caves in to his carnivorous cravings.

As Jimmy Buffett sang:
“Medium rare with Muenster’d be nice Heaven on earth with an onion slice I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise.”

“Cheeseburger in Paradise” went on to become a sing-along hit for the late Jimmy Buffett at Red Rocks shows in a state with legendary links to cheeseburgers and golf going back more than a century.

In fact, the sandwich and the game almost grew up together in Colorado.

When the first players got a tee time in 1895 at the opening of the original Denver Country Club – now, Overland Park Golf Course – a Connecticut lunch cook was serving the first hamburger sandwich in the United States, most likely cheese-less. Cheeseburgers were hard to find in Denver until locals and visitors hit the road in cars. In the 1920s, Louis Ballast opened the Humpty Dumpty Drive-In, Colorado’s first drive-in restaurant.

According to newspaper accounts, Ballast tested many hamburger toppings (including peanut butter with chocolate) before settling on a slice of cheese.

Ballast was NOT the first person to melt cheese on a ground beef sandwich, but he did wisely trademark the term “cheeseburger” in 1935.

That’s why – like war heroes and city founders – Louis Ballast is honored with a monument in Denver. a city long labelled a “cow town.” A simple granite slab in the parking lot at Key Bank, 2755 Speer Boulevard, is engraved with a tribute to the root beer barrel-shaped cheeseburger eatery that once occupied the site.

By the time Ballast was trademarking his heavenly combo of ground beef and melted cheese on a bun, the sandwich was popping up at local golf clubs where handheld foods were always appreciated. Golfers driving to The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs in 1937 could grab a 20-cent hamburger. Cheese was extra.

In 2025, cheeseburgers are a course menu fixture from Ballyneal Golf Club to Telluride Golf Club and courses in between, including Colorado’s newest destination, Ironwood Bar & Grill at Boulder’s Flatirons Golf Course.

Like Colorado’s golf courses, cheeseburgers have enjoyed a serious upgrade in recent years.

Ironwood Bar & Grill griddles a substantial freshly ground beef or bison patty to temperature, and dishes it with a choice of cheeses, lettuce, tomato and a slice of onion on a toasted brioche bun. Cold dill spears, hot fries and a 90 Schilling Ale complete a perfect meal for watching the putting green from the shaded patio.

TOPPED, SLOPPERED, SMASHED, AND CHOPPED
In a state as large and contentious as Colorado, a multiverse of local and regional cheeseburger variations has naturally grabbed diners’ attention. Golfers across the state will encounter patties made from turkey, game meats or mushrooms. They may be griddled, grilled or smoked and crowned with cheeses ranging from Velveeta to triple creme. If the cheese is inside the burger, it’s a “Juicy Lucy.”

No variation is more celebrated than The Slopper, a relative of the chile burgers served religiously in New Mexico. The Slopper evolved in Pueblo in the 1950s as a bar food. As served at the city’s historic Gray’s Coors Tavern, the dish consists of two open-face cheeseburgers swamped with pork green chile made with Pueblo-grown roasted chilies. Sloppers are garnished with chopped onions, grated cheese and/or saltine crackers.

Colorado’s hottest cheeseburger style may well be smashed: a ground beef ball flattened on a griddle. Introduced by Denver-born SMASHburger, the chain now has 227 locations in the U.S. as well as Canada, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.

Hot on its crispy heels is the viral “chopped cheese,” ground beef and cheese cooked on a griddle, then chopped and stuffed in a roll.

We acknowledge that Coloradans are not alone in our fondness for cheeseburgers.

In 2024, hamburgers were one of the Top 3 most popular American dishes in the U.S., according to Statistica. French fries have had a lock on the top spot for decades.

However, Colorado is the quintessential place to celebrate National Cheeseburger Day on September 18. Consider playing a round at a Colorado course and grabbing a clubhouse cheeseburger afterwards.

You can also join the band of devotees gathered around the little monument on Speer Boulevard to lift cheeseburgers to heaven as a toast to Louis Ballast.