A&W Drive-In, 728 Bradley Street “Come As You Are – Eat In Your Car!”

Who doesn’t remember A&W and that “frosty mug taste”?  Or better yet, who could forget the bees always buzzing around that Bradley Street Location? A&W Root Beer was the creation of Roy W. Allen, who in 1918 was a hotelier in Arizona at the time. There, he had the good fortune of partaking in a conversation with a retired pharmacist who had concocted a new formula for root beer. Allen purchased the “secret” formula, which included herbs, spices, bark, berries, and other ingredients.

A year later, the entrepreneur sold his first root beers at a roadside drink stand in 1919 during a parade honoring WWI Veterans in Lodi, California, who were returning home from war. Thus began a long history with American Veterans that later helped bolster the franchise in the post-World War II 1950s. Aiding his cause in the early years of his venture was the onset of prohibition, and those frosty mugs allowed people to wet their whistles and quench their thirsts.

Speaking of franchises, the restaurant chain started four years later when Mr. Allen teamed up with one of his employees, Frank Wright, to open the first drive-in in nearby Sacramento. A&W, as it would become known, was merely the first letter of each of their last names. In 1925, the partners became the first restaurant chain in the United States to sell franchises.

According to its official website, the post-war boom in the 1950s and “the prevalence of G.I. Loans led to a ‘new flurry of development and nearly 450 operating A&Ws.'” The first international restaurant was established in Winnipeg in 1956, and the first A&W in Watertown was established in 1959 via a partnership between Charles Forshaw, a teacher at North Junior High School, and Lewis R. Morgan. The drive-in, of course, was located at 728 Bradley Street.

The local A&W promoted the drive-in with car hops and “Come as you are – eat in your car!” located on the road to the Thousand Islands. There you could indulge in pizza, hot dogs, chili dogs, and French fries, and take home some of that frosty-mug goodness in a quart or gallon. Into the 1960s, Mr. Forshaw relocated to California but still owned the local restaurant that was, for some time, managed by long-time North Side advocate and Watertown politician Bruce Dempster.

In 1963, A&W served up a bacon cheeseburger, claiming to be the first to serve the All-American favorite that’s yet to be disputed. Papaburgers declared a meal in itself and were joined by Mamaburgers, Teenburgers, and even Babyburgers. If that weren’t enough, Shrimpburgers were on the menu, too, though they must have been a fad that didn’t quite catch on with the finicky-fast-food crowd – or perhaps the marketing effort wasn’t as catchy as later rivals’ efforts of “Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese” while “Where’s the shrimp?” doesn’t sound quite as enticing, either.

On Jan 12, 1971, the Watertown Daily Times reported—

Root Beer Drive-In Purchased

The A & W Root Beer Drive-In Restaurant, 728 Bradley Street, has been purchased by David L. Shuler from Charles H. Forshaw.

Mr. Shuler is the owner of the Howard’s Restaurant, Mill Street.

Mr. Forshaw, a former teacher at North Junior High School, lives in Riverside, Calif.

Purchase price of the business was not disclosed.

Perhaps feeling pressure from competitors who had introduced mascots to go with catchy advertising jingles, A&W introduced Rooty the great root bear in 1974, just three years after the brand’s root bear was made widely available in cans and bottles for the first time. Locally, that same year, Mr. Shuler sold his A&W on Bradley Street to Gerald K. and Clarissa Forshaw, the brother and sister-in-law of original owner Charles Forshaw.

Charles Forshaw purchased Benton’s Crossroad Diner on Outer LeRay Street the following year. The sale was negotiated by, coincidentally, the local realty firms of John Urban and Bruce Dempster.

The Forshaws operated the A&W drive-in until 1985, when it was sold for $100,000 to Peter Hunter, who razed it to build a new Mexican restaurant in its place, Margaritaville, one of only two such eateries in the tri-county region, including Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence, at the time.    

According to Mr. Hunter, who spoke with the Watertown Daily Times, “It’s time for a new restaurant because there will be more people in the area due to Fort Drum,” adding that the new Salmon Run Mall also attracted many Canadian shoppers who traveled to Syracuse. Though A&W left the Watertown market in 1985, it wouldn’t be for long as it returned, this time at the Salmon Run Mall food court.  

Interesting Tidbits

In 1972, the Canadian A&W restaurants became independent and operated separately from the United States franchises. The 70s also saw standards slip across franchises, leading to new terms of agreement, which many locations decided not to adhere to and let their stores’ terms and agreements expire. This may explain why there were, and still may be, older locations with the same color schemes operating under different names.

Currently, there are over 1,000 A&W franchises worldwide, eight located in New York State.

In 2003, A&W introduced real Wisconsin fried cheese curds to their menu.

Locally, in 1982, tacos cost .50¢ while burritos were .75¢.

Locally, A&W was the place to go after baseball games played at North Junior High School’s athletic fields. Kids in uniforms and gloves descended on Bradley Street by the carload. The 1984 commercial below, with a well-known actor, pays tribute to the “after-game” tradition of stopping by A&W.