Читать книгу All about the Burger - Sef Gonzalez - Страница 27

Hamburger Stand Postcard from 1942.

Once the franchise agreement for Reed and Bell expired in 1945, all the rights for those five states reverted to Allen. A boom for new franchisees saw over 450 A&W drive-ins in operation by 1950.

After Allen’s wife took ill, he sold the company to a businessman named Gene Hurtz. During his tenure as owner, the drive-ins expanded their menus to have a more extensive selection of food. By 1963, the A&W brand had over 2,300 locations in the US, Canada, and Europe. In 1972, the Canadian restaurants were sold off separately and to this day operate independently of their US counterparts.

After a series of mergers and purchases, the company was owned by United Brands Company. A&W Root Beer Company became A&W International to reflect its growing global expansion. Part of their new marketing plan was to focus on the restaurants, not the root beer. In 1971, bottled A&W root beer was available in stores and markets across the US. Its popularity led to the formation of A&W Beverage, Inc. to sell root beer outside of the restaurants.

Drive-ins fell under the subsidiary of A&W Restaurants, Inc. as of 1978. United Brands sold off the restaurants in 1982 and followed that up the next year by selling off the beverage to a separate company. It was just like having two adopted brothers and sisters split up.

A&W Beverages ended up at Cadbury Schweppes in October, 1993, where it’s now part of a soft drink portfolio that includes Crush, Dr. Pepper, RC Cola, and Seven-Up.

The restaurants are now franchisee-owned by A Great American Brand, LLC. Its headquarters are in Lexington, Kentucky, where they’ve got a new revamped A&W Burgers Chicken Floats concept that focuses on fresh beef burgers, hand-battered chicken tenders, and root beer that’s made daily. I’ve visited one of the new stores and can’t wait till they find their way to South Florida.

There are currently about 630 A&W restaurants in the US with another 370 in Southeast Asia. A&W in Canada is now privately owned and has over 850 locations.

Bob’s Big Boy

Year Founded: 1936

City Founded: Glendale, California

Founder: Bob Wian

Number of Locations at the Chain’s Peak: 560

Slogan: “A Meal in One on a Double-Deck Bun”

Big Boy founder Bob Wian started at the bottom. Shortly after graduating from high school in 1933, he took a job at the White Log Coffee Shop in Los Angeles. He worked his way up from dishwasher to fry cook and then to manager. His boss at the time, Davis W. Wood, would later become the purchasing agent for the Bob’s Big Boy chain. While at the White Log Coffee Shop, Wian learned their entire system of operation, from pricing to their use of a central commissary for all of their locations. Wian believed he could build a better mousetrap.

Wian was adamant about gaining restaurant experience, so he quit his management job and went back to an entry-level dishwashing gig at Rite Spot. He also learned the fry cook and counterman stations. The Rite Spot offered curb service, and Wian’s younger sister was a carhop there. It was at Rite Spot that he learned how important consistency is in food service. The man who hired Wian at Rite Spot was Leonard A. Dunagan, who would later be the vice president and general manager of the Bob’s Big Boy company. I guess it paid off to be kind to Wian.

Wian had been saving up his earnings to open up his own place. He came across a ten-stool stand located between a nursery and a liquor store in Glendale, California. He sold his DeSoto Roadster for three hundred dollars and used the proceeds to buy the store, then borrowed fifty dollars from his dad for supplies. On August 6, 1936, the stand reopened as Bob’s Pantry.