If ever there was a crooner for foodies, it’d be Jimmy Buffet. The singer celebrated food, glorious food, in many of his songs. There were fruitcakes and peanut butter, and of course, cheeseburgers. According to the lyrics of Buffet’s song “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” the musician had some particular preferences when it came time to eat one. For starters, he liked them cooked medium-rare and languishing under a layer of melty Muenster cheese. Muenster’s mildness enhances a burger’s taste instead of overpowering it.
He’d dress his beefy sandwich with tomato and lettuce, then spice things up with some Heinz 57. This steak sauce has a tangy tomato base like ketchup, but it contains other spices and ingredients that give it a punch of umami flavor reminiscent of Worcestershire sauce. You might even call Heinz 57 ketchup for grown-ups. When “Cheeseburger in Paradise” was released in 1978, people still favored steak sauce on their meat in a way that they don’t today. This is mostly because, these days, meat requires less “doctoring” to make it taste good due to improvements in quality. But it’s hard to imagine Buffet’s song or burger without it. And it probably made his burger taste really good.
Finally, Buffett completed his meal with a kosher pickle and french fries. Ideally, cold beer pulled straight from the keg’s tap washed everything down — not the perfect margarita you’d probably expect from the singer of “Margaritaville.”
Where Jimmy Buffett’s perfect burger actually came from
Given how much of his music celebrated paradise and the beach and burgers, in this case, it’s unsurprising that, over the years, many fans have wondered where the inspiration for “Cheeseburger in Paradise” came from. Cabbage Key Inn & Restaurant in Cabbage Key, Florida, the Dew Drop Inn in Mobile, Alabama, and Le Select on St. Barts rank among the contenders.
According to “The Parrot Head Handbook,” Buffett himself debunked this idea (via Garden & Gun). None of those worthwhile burger joints produced his cheeseburger song and the burger that followed. Rather, inspiration for it came when he was on a boat trip that went awry. A broken bowsprit forced the vessel he was in to basically float along, more or less, and as a result, food supplies dwindled down to a jar of peanut butter and canned food. Buffett got through the trip by fantasizing about the perfect burger he’d eat if he weren’t stuck on a boat.
As fortunes had it, he eventually ended up on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. There, he found a bar that boasted real American cheeseburgers on its menu, along with the necessary piña coladas to wash them down with. The burger he got there was far from perfect — burned, in fact — but it was enough to satisfy his craving and spark the inspiration for the famous song.
