What Happened to A&W Drive-Ins? | They Were Bigger Than McDonald's
Before It Vanished and Legendary Locomotives
236,711 views Mar 15, 2026
#60s #50s #americana
At its peak in 1974, A&W had 2,400 locations. More than McDonald's. Carhops on roller skates. Frosty glass mugs straight from the freezer. Root beer that tasted like nothing in a can or bottle ever could. Speaker boxes, tin canopies, and a parking lot that was the center of your social life every Friday night. The oldest fast-food chain in America — older than sliced bread. This is the full story.
From Roy Allen buying a root beer recipe from an Arizona pharmacist and selling frosty mugs for a nickel at a 1919 parade in Lodi, California, right as Prohibition shut down every bar in the country. Through the franchise system that pioneered fast food. Through the Marriott Hotels origin as an A&W root beer stand. Through the Burger Family menu and the frosty mugs that became the most shoplifted item in American restaurant history. And through the spectacular collapse. No standard menu for fifty-nine years.
The math test disaster of 1982 — a bigger, better, cheaper burger that failed because more than half of America thought one-third was less than one-quarter. Eight different owners in fifty years. Yum! Brands co-branding with KFC, replacing fresh root beer with bag-in-a-box, killing the frosty mugs, seven straight years of declining sales.
Then the franchisees bought it back in 2011 and brought back everything. Frosty mugs. Fresh root beer. Sales up every year since. If you ever stole a mug — tell me about it in the comments.