A&W: The first U.S. drive-in was born in California
And still exists 105 years later.
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“The Canadian A&W is a totally different company. The Canadian A&W is better than the US, especially the root beer.” Now, hold up there pardner.
I’m not a patriotic person. Sure, my emotions will heighten during the crescendo of the Star Spangled Banner. Because much like film scores, the music was designed to manipulate the listener’s emotions. Nothing will make me pull up faster in a bedazzled pair of United States flag Daisy Dukes, with two shotguns (one for each arm), screeching like a Red-tailed Hawk (because if you’re a nerd you’d know that the bald eagle has a weak screech and that the screech we all know is actually a Red-tailed Hawk dub), than Canadians or The British claiming their food is better than the food in the U.S. Especially, if that food they’re specifically talking about has anything to do with California.
On June 20, 1919 Roy Allen set up his first root beer walkup stand along the parade route that welcomed home WWI veterans in Lodi, California. 36 miles from my hometown, Sacramento. How do we know? There’s a historical plaque outside of the original A&W location in Lodi, California that reads…
Roy Allen was an entrepreneur born in 1882 in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Years later he would become a hotel flipper. He purchased, refurbished and sold old hotels, working his way across the country to the West Coast. I could not find out where he got the money to do so, or if he came from family money.
While Allen was doing business in Arizona, he was served a root beer, the recipe created by a local pharmacist. Because some soda fountains were inside pharmacies back in the day. The same chemists that were concocting potions and syrups for the sick, could also concoct some sick ass syrups for casual drinks. Allen liked it so much, he bought the recipe from the pharmacist for $150 and bought the rights to manufacture and market the new root beer syrup.
He landed in Lodi, California (there’s no documentation on how or why) just in time when the local soldiers were returning home. He sold $0.05 root beer in frosty mugs out of a temporary walk up stand. He also arrived, strapped with an alternative beverage with the word “beer” in it, just in time for prohibition that would come only seven months later. And so would a nationwide expedition against the beverage.
While the sale of root beer was booming during prohibition, The Woman's Christian Temperance Union spent three years calling for a ban on root beer. The drink had become incredibly popular thanks to Charles Elmer Hires (Hires root beer) who was already producing and distributing his own root beer recipe in 1876. And that’s who the women set their sights on.
“Eventually he [Hires] got an independent lab to test his root beers’ alcohol content, and the results arrived in 1898. Hold on to your hats, folks: the root beer was not the booze-rich syrup of Satan. In fact, the lab found that a bottle of Hires' root beer contained roughly the same amount of alcohol as half a loaf of bread.
The WCTU no doubt considered using this analysis as an excuse to begin a national boycott of bread, but in the end, the union decided to ease up on Hires.
And thus eased up on Allen’s ability to continue to sell his sup and spend his profits in another way; adding another permanent brick and mortar to his fleet and creating a chain. Although Allen opened up another location in Stockton, California in 1920, it wouldn’t be until he partnered up with one of his employees, Frank Wright, (and early franchisees) to create what we know today as A&W; Allen and Wright.
Together they opened up a brick and mortar in Sacramento, California in 1923 on the corner of 16th and K streets. This location is said to be the first drive-in (not to be confused with the drive-thru) in California. Also, the first franchised restaurant company. Some say they also created the bacon cheeseburger.
By 1925 Allen had already purchased all of Wright’s shares of the restaurant and he reigned until he retired in 1950 and sold the company. What happened to Wright? I don’t know. A&W changed hands again 13 years later when “the conglomerate United Fruit Co. bought it in 1967, and three years later AMK Corp. bought United Fruit and formed United Brands Co.”
In September 1999, A&W announced to acquire the Long John Silver’s chain out of bankruptcy after the company that owned it Jerrico Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 1998. As a result, Yorkshire Global Restaurants was formed. Which is why you’d see some A&W locations combined with Long John Silver’s. In May 2002 Yorkshire was acquired by Tricon Global and Tricon was renamed Yum! Brands, Inc. In September 2011, Yum! announced the impending sale of Long John Silver's to LJS Partners – a group consisting of franchisees.
In 2011 the franchisees bought the company back from Yum! Brands, resumed making their signature Root Beer fresh in each restaurant and focused on getting back to a tight “All-American” menu featuring burgers, cheese curds and their in-house made chicken tenders.
You can still visit the Lodi location that’s near the original. Pete Knight currently owns the Lodi, California (and St. Helena) location, which also has a ton of A&W memorabilia inside. Pete started working for the company when he was 16 years old at the San Rafael A&W in 1973. Working his way up through the ranks from the kitchen to management to franchisee.
International tourists still come to visit the Lodi location because they’ve seen it mentioned in guidebooks referencing the town as George Lucas’ hometown (Star Wars/American Graffiti).
When people ask, “Who’s keeping A&W in business?” I don’t know what they could possibly mean because this Lodi location never has a lack of customers in line. When you order at the call box, you pull up to the end of the driveway which is right outside the kitchen’s door. An employee will come out and collect your payment and bring out your food. And the food is always piping hot straight from the fryer!
My go-to is always their 100% Real Wisconsin Cheese Curds. Chicken tenders, which they hand bread on the premises. The tenders are girthy chunks of juicy (real) chicken breast with a simple and light flour coating. And the shrimp basket. I know. Shrimp at a fast food location?! Their little panko-breaded shrimp come by the dozen with a side of their straight cut fries that arrive golden brown and crispy crispy. A little cup of tangy cocktail sauce for dipping. And no visit to this 105-year-old quick service chain (The U.S.’ oldest franchised restaurant chain) is complete without one of their root beer floats. Ask if they have any frosty mugs available, even if you’re in the drive-thru, and they’ll bring out a tall frosty A&W branded mug with a towering quantity of vanilla soft serve ice cream on top of their in-house made root beer soda.
The first Canadian A&W restaurant opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1956. The Canadian restaurants were part of the American chain until 1972 when they were sold to Unilever (who also own Ben & Jerry’s). In 1995 the company was put into some sort of partnership, from which I can understand, still operates similarly to a franchise, except restaurant operators pay to license the name A&W from the A&W Trade Marks Limited Partnership.
A&W is still the only major restaurant brand in the U.S. that’s 100% owned by its franchisees, which means all of the A&W locations in the United States are owned by its franchisees.
Love youuuuuuuu, Canada. Kthnxbye. Red-tailed Hawk Bald Eagle Screech peace out.
My uncle was an A&W franchise king in Wyoming in the 60s and he set his brother, my dad, up with a shop when he immigrated to the States. In Jackson Hole no less. The American dream, right? My dad drove it into the ground and my uncle gave him the boot. But from 3 to 4 years old, I lived off end-of-day fried chicken. I really appreciate the backstory on the company.
Also, the pics in this post are gorgeous! The onion ring one! It's like that famous picture of a black hole: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/13/1169469591/goodbye-fuzzy-donut-the-famous-first-black-hole-photo-gets-sharpened-up