By Debbie Schlussel
Especially in this economy, I love to tell readers about free stuff. And, today, A & W is celebrating its 90th birthday. This great American company (it’s slogan is “All American Food”) has been serving our country for 90 years.
In honor of that, today, from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., you can get a FREE A& W Root Beer Float. Mmmmm . . . with warmer temperatures, it hits the spot. Find your nearest A & W Restaurant.
(For those who are not huge fans of root beer (like me), you can always make your own at home with Vernor’s Ginger Ale, like my grandma used to make. Yum.)

Also in honor of A & W’s 90th, on Sunday, Father’s Day, A&W is selling a Papa Burger for 90 cents, so you can treat yourself and Dad on the cheap. (I keep kosher, so I don’t partake in this stuff, but that doesn’t mean you can’t.)
I love A & W, even though I don’t eat there (again, not kosher). The brand is one of the few to survive for nearly a century in contemporary America. And it provides low cost food for American families. Those are things I celebrate. Roy Allen (the “A” in A & W) was a great American entrepreneur, whose initial remains on a company that grew to titanic size, beyond his wildest dreams. Yes, anything can happen in America.

Roy Allen: Great American Invented A & W Root Beer in 1919
I hope A&W is around for another 90 years and remains an American company.
A & W Restaurants, Inc. is now owned by Yum Brands, Inc. But here’s a little history on how this great American enterprise got started:

One hot day in June of 1919 in Lodi, California an entrepreneur named Roy Allen mixed up a batch of creamy root beer and sold the first frosty mug of this delightful beverage for one nickel. Now, more than seventy years later, A&W Root Beer is the world’s number one selling root beer and is still mixed fresh daily and sold at hundreds of A&W restaurants.
Allen purchased the formula for his root beer from a pharmacist in Arizona. To this day, the unique blend of herbs, spices, barks and berries remains a proprietary secret.
With the success of his first root beer stand in Lodi, Allen soon opened a second stand in nearby Sacramento. It was there that what is thought to be the country’s first “drive-in” featuring “tray-boys” for curb side service, opened up.

First A&W Outlet

In 1922 Allen took on a partner, Frank Wright, an employee from his original Lodi location. The two partners combined their initials – “A” for Allen and “W” for Wright and formally named the beverage, A&W Root Beer. Three units were opened in Sacramento, then on to other northern and central California locations and to the states of Texas and Utah.

By 1933 A & W already had 170 franchises across America.
Read more at the A & W site.