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A&W Drive-In in Lodi, California around the 1920s.

Allen and Wright used the initials of their last names for their drink, “A&W Root Beer.” Shortly afterward, a few more locations were opened in Houston, Texas.

In 1923, Allen decided to take advantage of the public’s evolution into a more mobile society. He transformed one of the Sacramento root beer stands into a drive-in restaurant. The addition of “tray boys” to bring orders to thirsty customers changed the game. There are unsubstantiated claims that this was the first drive-in.

After buying out the company from Wright in 1924, Allen began to expand his brand by franchising across the United States the following year. He sold exclusive rights to the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington to H.C. Bell and Lewis Reed. All of those locations would be renamed to “Reed & Bell Root Beer.”

In 1927, J. Willard Marriott (yes, the hotel guy) bought the franchise rights for Baltimore, Maryland; Richmond, Virginia; and Washington, DC Later that year, he opened The Hot Shoppe, which would become the Hot Shoppes restaurant chain two years later.

A&W drive-ins continued to expand across the United States, and by 1933, there were over 170 of them. But after the US entered World War II, A&W Root Beer Drive-Ins suffered as much if not more than other restaurants of that era. Young men available to work the drive-ins were scarce. So were food, sugar, and other essentials to make the root beer. By the end of the war in 1945, nearly eighty A&W locations had closed up shop.