Along a busy side street, just off a freeway northeast of downtown Los Angeles, there is a small plaque that changed the course of United States history. It is, in essence, a loving ode to a single piece of cheese.
The plaque, installed in front of what is today a credit union for Pasadena firefighters, makes a simple two-sentence claim: here is where the world got its first look at America’s most famous food, thanks to young cook Lionel Sternberger. The simple metal commemoration declares that, at just 16, Sternberger “first put cheese on a hamburger and served it to a customer.”
Billions of people, myself included, have been chasing that high ever since.
Back in Sternberger’s day, this 1924 stretch of Colorado Boulevard was to become an early and vital chunk of Route 66, the so-called Mother Road stretching 2,448 miles from downtown Chicago to Santa Monica and the edge of the continent. (Fun fact: While most tourists celebrate the Santa Monica Pier as the terminus of Route 66, it’s actually slightly inland, ending at the doorstep of a historic diner space that is today a Mel’s Drive-In.)…