Monday, October 11, 2010

Which came first: A&W Root Beer or restaurants?


Search
: a&w

Why: We passed some restaurants on the way back from Las Vegas.

Answer: Root beer!
  • 1919 - Roy Allen starts selling root beer for 5¢ at a stand in Lodi, CA. He opens another stand in Sacramento, believed to be the country's first drive-in.
  • 1922 - Allen partners with Frank Wright. Get it? Allen & Wright.
  • 1933 - The root beer is such a success that they have over 170 franchised outlets in the Midwest and West.
  • 1950 - With over 450 restaurants operating nationwide, Allen retires and sells the business to Gene Hurtz, who forms the A&W Root Beer Company.
  • 1971 - Cans and bottles of A&W root beer are sold on grocery shelves.
Source: AWRestaurants.com

The More You Know: A&W Root Beer and A&W Cream Soda were among the first flavors offered by Jelly Belly in 1976. (The others were Very Cherry, Tangerine, Lemon, Green Apple, Grape, and Licorice.) Buy me this:

1 comment:

  1. mmm A&W. That's my second-favorite kind of root beer, behind IBC, which is a lot more expensive.

    ReplyDelete