In 1974, A&W operated 2,400 drive-ins across America, more than McDonald’s or Burger King at the time. Customers pulled into parking spots, rolled down their windows, and car hops in uniforms hooked metal trays onto their doors. Today, most of those drive-ins are gone, along with much of what made them distinctive. The decline began in the early 1970s as McDonald’s offered faster service and Burger King competed on price.
The construction of interstate highways bypassed many small towns where A&W drive-ins had been central gathering places. Speaker boxes went silent, car hops finished their final shifts, and the parking lots where families had eaten together for decades were converted into tire shops, banks, or empty lots. The chain went from 2,400 locations in 1974 to about 460 today, with many surviving locations now sharing buildings with Long John Silver’s and operating as standard drive-thrus. Among the menu items that disappeared with the drive-in era was the gallon jug of root beer.
Before A&W sold canned root beer in grocery stores, customers could take home a full glass gallon of draft root beer, sealed and sweating in the back seat. The jugs typically lasted one evening in the refrigerator and often remained in family kitchens for years afterward, reused for iced tea. Cheese curds were a regional staple in Wisconsin and Minnesota, where they helped keep A&W locations open longer than elsewhere. The deep-fried white cheddar nuggets came in paper boats and squeaked against the teeth when fresh.
Corn dog nuggets rounded out the fried side of the menu, served in paper cups with yellow mustard for dipping. Fish and chips was the Friday option for Catholic families, featuring battered white fish, crinkle-cut fries, tartar sauce, and a lemon wedge for about $2. 50. The hot fudge sundae, served in a paper boat with vanilla soft serve, warm fudge, whipped cream, chopped nuts, and a single cherry, became a signature dessert item.
The crinkle-cut fries were frozen, fried until golden, and salted generously, served in cardboard sleeves. They became memorable largely because of the setting: a metal tray hooked to a car window on a summer Saturday night. Onion rings were similarly simple, hand-battered and thick, often ordered as an alternative to fries. The menu’s burger lineup included the Baby Burger at 35 cents, with cheese as a nickel extra, designed for younger children.
The Mama Burger cost 56 cents in 1975 and came with one patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a sauce. The Teen Burger featured bacon and cost 44 cents in 1975; it remains on the menu in Canada but disappeared from American locations. The Awful Awful, priced at about $1. 10 in 1960, contained two patties with bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, and pickles, marketed as “awful big, awful good.
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The Papa Burger was the largest sandwich, with two patties, lettuce, tomato, onion, and Papa sauce at 68 cents in 1975. Fiberglass statues of a character called Papa Burger, wearing red and white checkered overalls and holding a burger and frosted mug, stood outside locations. A full set of four statues cost $1,800 in 1967. Some have since been preserved, with one restored by the New York State Museum and another receiving a bronze plaque from a city in Oregon.
The Frank N. Stein was a seasonal Halloween promotion combining a hot dog and a frosted mug of root beer, accompanied by a glow-in-the-dark sticker. The walnut sundae, with vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, and walnuts, was a popular order for customers who wanted to stay longer in the parking lot. The Coney Dog came in a steamed bun topped with A&W’s chili sauce and sweet diced onion, with a cheese version available.
Some towns designated Tuesday as Coney Dog Day, drawing large evening crowds. The frosted mug was central to the A&W experience, with root beer mixed fresh at each restaurant from a proprietary blend of herbs, bark, spices, and berries. The chain also released limited edition collector’s mugs annually, which customers collected like baseball cards. The root beer float, priced at 20 cents in 1976, combined a frosted mug, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, and draft root beer poured over the top.
Car hops, typically teenage girls in uniforms with coin changers on their belts, carried heavy trays across parking lots and were an integral part of the experience. The tray system itself, hooked to rolled-down car windows, transformed vehicles into dining spaces. Customers flashed their headlights when finished, and car hops would retrieve the trays. The broader ritual included Sunday drives after church, with families piling into station wagons and heading to A&W.
The smell of draft root beer, vanilla ice cream, and grilling burgers drifting across parking lots was often the first sensory experience before customers even parked. National Root Beer Float Day is observed on August 6th, and A&W still gives away floats on that date. However, the modern version differs from the original, as the mugs are no longer frozen, the root beer is not draft, and the parking lots are not filled with families who drove there together. The decline of the drive-in format marked the end of an era in which a family of five could eat together in a car for less than $4.
The combination of inexpensive food, car-side service, and the atmosphere of summer evenings made A&W drive-ins a cultural fixture in American towns for roughly two decades.