Nachos are a well-known snack, but what are Sloppy Nachos?
 
“Sloppy Joe” was the name of a famous bar in Havana, Cuba in the 1920s. After Prohibition ended in the United States, the bar went out of business. However, other bars have recently sprung up around the world using the “Sloppy Joe” name.
 
“Sloppy Joe” was also the name of a popular sweater, first sold in 1939.
 
“Sloppy Joe” became the name of a sandwich (with meat and sauce that makes eating it somewhat sloppy) by 1940.
 
“Sloppy Nachos” are a 1990s variant, borrowed from the “Sloppy Joe” sandwich. Sloppy Nachos are nachos with lots of extras on them.
 
 
Wikipedia: Sloppy Joe
In the United States, a sloppy joe is a hot sandwich, typically composed of ground beef cooked in a skillet with highly seasoned tomato sauce or tomato paste and spread between two sides of a bun. Commercially made sauces, such as Manwich, are also available. Textured vegetable protein may be used as a vegetarian or vegan substitute for the meat. Sloppy joes are simpler version of a barbeque sandwich which uses shredded beef or pork and barbecue sauce. A sloppy joe that is made from ground turkey instead of ground beef is also known as a sloppy tom.

The term “sloppy” comes from the fact that eating it as if it were a normal sandwich often results in the meat and sauce spilling out. It may also be served “open face”, with the bun halves or slices of bread next to each other and the meat on top of each. A sloppy joe served with no bun at all is known as a saucy beefeater.
         
La Morada (Austin, TX)
Sloppy Nachos
Tostadas topped with beans, taco meat and our famous chili con queso. Jalapenos, onions, tomatoes and lettuce on the side.
   
Austin, TX - Citysearch
Aussie’s Volleybar and Grill
306 Barton Springs Rd
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 480-0952
(...)
Food options include self-described sloppy nachos, (tortilla chips topped with chili, tomatoes, chives and jalapenos) and sausage queso with plenty of spice.
 
Sloppy Joe’s (Billmar Resort, Treasure Island, FL)
Sloppy Nachos
We use our terrific Sloppy Joe mix and cheddar jack cheese to accompany our homemade tortilla and potato chips. We then add shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sour cream and salsa. 7.99
 
Caliente’s California Style Burrito Shop
Seriously Sloppy Nachos (Chips, cheese sauce, grilled chicken or steak, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, lettuce and chipotle ranch)
 
El Sombrero (Southington, CT)
Sloppy Nachos $6.25
Mounds of chips smothered with tomato, beans, cheese, olives, jalapeños, sour cream & salsa
-with chicken or beef ... $7.25
 
Villa Del Sol Mexican Restaurants (Northeast)
SLOPPY NACHOS
Mounds of chips smothered with cheese, beans, olives, jalapenos & sour cream

31 August 1923, New York World, pg. 11, col. 1:
More Havana Snapshots
If you have been to Havana and have not visited “Dirty Joe’s,” on the Prado, you have not seen Havana. “Dirty Joe’s” is as much of an institution as “Jack’s” or the Hotel Astor bar used to be to Broadwayites and visitors in the good old days. Joe is a Spaniard who probably owes his appellation to his swarthy complexion and is not what it would indicate, for he is a clean and likable fellow with many American friends. His place is a regular, old-fashioned grocery, which is more like a typical country store, with the dry goods left out but wet goods in their place.
 
Joe sells either by the bottle or by the drink anything there is, or has been discovered, to tickle the palate of men. The furnishings of the place are about as up-to-date as those of a Tenth Avenue delicatessen shop, but he gives the biggest drink of the best liquor for the least money—or so it is said by visitors—and has a reputation as a cocktail mixer that extends from New Orleans to Demerara.
 
When It’s Cocktail Time in Cuba
by Basil Woon
New York: Horace Liveright
1928
Pg. 43:
The lucky part came when the Havana city government some years ago appointed a “sanitary commission” to inquire into the cleanliness of the bodegas.  The less said about the actual workings of this commission the better. But it happened that “Pop” Roberds, proprietor of the Havana Evening News, and Joe were having a little squabble about this time over a matter of advertising. “Pop” (Pg. 44—ed.) thought Joe should advertise with him, and Joe thought differently about it. “Pop,” being an old-style newspaper man, very properly thought himself affronted, and forthwith wrote an editorial in which he suggested to the Sanitary Commission that they might with profit extend their investigations to include “a place on Zuletta Street which should be called ‘Sloppy’ Joe’s.”  The name caught on almost at once, and Joe, although privately peeved at “Pop,” realized that he had a good thing. He enlarged his place, and at a moment when drinks in Havana were costing seventy-five cents apiece (it was just afte r the Volstead Act became operative in the United States), suddenly cut the price in half. The resultant business forced him to enlarge his place again.
 
“Sloppy Joe’s” became a byword and Joe used the slogan on his saloon sign and in his advertising. Distinguished writers from New York and further afield wrote about the place and money came in so fast that Joe again enlarged. He now employs eleven bartenders. He advertises in The Evening News and “Pop” Roberds is a regular client. The place is big, noisy, has an almost exclusively tourist trade, and is frequented for refreshments after the theater. It has little really Cuban about it and might before the war have been on Third Avenue, New York.
     
27 August 1939, Washington Post, pg. S7 ad:
SWEATERS…in as many styles and types as you could name in a month of jam sessions! We sketch plain Cuna slip-ons, the elegantly in-elegant “Sloppy Joe” cardigan, novelties that button or pull over. Rainbow of colors…$1.95
   
27 March 1940, Mansfield (OH) News-Journal, pg. 14, col. 4 ad: 
HAMILTON’S
NEW
SANDWICH BAR
FEATURING
5c
HOT DOGS
BARBECUES
SLOPPY JOES
 
29 May 1941, Mansfield (Ohio) News-Journal, pg. 9, col. 1:
Rev. D. B. Boller eating “Sloppy Joe” sandwiches.
 
10 June 1942, Mansfield (Ohio) News-Journal, pg 8, col. 1:
Sloppy Joe Sandwiches.
 
2 November 1946, MARION STAR (Marion, Ohio), pg. 17, col. 1, ad:
The Coffee Pot
766 Davids St.
Sloppy Joe
Sandwiches
 
September 1948, Merchant Restaurateur (NJ), pg. 12, col. 1:
REMEMBER the days when a diner was—just a diner?  When you perched up on a hard stool and for a thin dime got a cup of coffee and a hamburger slopped at you by a greasy counter man? And when nice ladies crossed to the other side of the street just to avoid the Romeos—and the smells? Sure, you say, you remember. In fact you can still think of a few places like that around town. So what has that got to do with the price of beef steak? (...)  Wait a minute, you say. Weren’t we speaking of diners and sloppy Joes a minute ago?

10 October 1948, Nashua (Iowa) Reporter, “Tricks for Teens” by Nancy Pepper, pg. 6?, col. 4:
DID YOU KNOW THAT:
A Sloppy Joe is the new name for a Dagwood Sandwich?
 
14 August 1949, Mansfield (Ohio) News-Journal, pg. 8, col. 1:
The refreshment counter where chicken, sloppy joe and wiener sandwiches, homemade pie, coffee and soft drinks will be sold will be in the school kitchen.
 
15 August 1950, Zanesville (Ohio) Signal, pg. 8, col. 3:
There are many more eating stands operated by churches this year. One of the newcomers is operated by women of the South Zanesville Methodist church. Their “Sloppy Joe” sandwiches are hard to beat.
 
8 March 1951, Marion (Ohio) Star, pg. 31, col. 4:
At Waldo Methodist Church, Friday, March 9, starting 5:30 p.m. Home-made chicken and noodle soup, chili soup, chicken, Sloppy-Joe and wiener sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans, fruit and vegetable salad, pie and cake, coffee and chocolate milk.
 
22 May 1951, Cochocton (Ohio) Tribune, pg. 5, col. 5:
Sloppy Joe sandwiches and coffee will be served.
   
11 July 1951, East Liverpool (OH) Review, pg. 11, col. 3: 
Making a Sloppy Joe—a glorified hamburger—would be commonplace enough to an adult, but to the Brownies attending Day Camp this week at the Bryan Recreation Center, Dixonville, it provided the thrill of their young lives.
 
24 August 1951, Ogden (UT) Standard Examiner, pg. 8A, col. 8:
Teen-Agers Like
“Sloppy Joes”
When your teen-age gang descends on your home for eats let it be “Sloppy Joes” and plenty of them.
   
First fry onions and ground beef until browned. Then add tomato puree, a can of chopped ripe olives and seasonings to taste. Heat thoroughly and serve in toasted hamburger split buns.
   
2 November 1951, Huntingdon (PA) Daily News, pg. 6, cols. 4-5”
Originally the girls planned to sell hamburger sandwiches, but before the festival, Mrs. Jennie Young, their leader, received a letter from her sister telling about a barbecue sandwich called a “Sloppy Joe” which was very popular in her area.
     
The “Jolly Cooks” abandoned the regular hamburger idea and made “Sloppy Joes” for their customers, who praised the innovation. Thinking perhaps that other groups might like to serve these barbecues at a sale, Mrs. Young offers the following recipe:
Beef Barbecue
2 pounds hamburg, 1 tablespoon fat, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 1/2 cups chopped celery, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 6 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon chopped onion, 1 tablespoon dry mustard, 2 cups catsup, salt. Cook meat until done. Make sauce by melting fat and combining all other items. Heat well but do not cook enough to soften vegetables. Combine with meat. Serve by spoonful on barbecue buns. 
 
7 June 1953, Los Angeles Times, pg. J14:
She looked at me curiously. “But, Daddy, that’s just what we’re having. Sloppy Joe hamburgers.”
 
5 August 1956, Chicago Daily Tribune, pg. G25:
Oriental ‘burgers are distant kin of the “sloppy joe,” the hamburger mixture that comes “loose,” and is spooned into the bun.
 
May 26-June 1, 2004, New York Press, Summer Guide, pg. 124, col. 1:
CODY’S BAR & GRILL, 282 Hudson Street (between Spring & Dominick),
Appetizers
Sloppy Nachos…5.95
Tortilla Chips Topped with Shredded Cheddar, Pepper Jack, Chili, Salsa, Guacamole, Sour Cream & Jalapenos