counters or luncheonettes were initially just that, a counter where you could sit down on a stool to enjoy lunch. Waitresses would tend to the customers while a cook prepared the dish. Lunch counters were popularized inside five-and-dime stores, which had a twofold reason for being there. Hungry customers could stop and grab something to eat, and someone who had just dropped in for a bite might end up in the store buying something.
The menu kept it simple with things that could be cooked on a flat-top grill, like hamburgers, sandwiches, soups, and desserts. Breakfast was a favorite at most lunch counters. Specials like meatloaf or hot turkey could be found daily.
Lunch counters were hurt immensely by fast food fever in the United States. Unlike drive-ins, which have been able to carve out a living in smaller towns, lunch counters and luncheonettes have pretty much been wiped from existence.
Diners, Drive-Ins, and Lunch Counters
A&W
Year Founded: 1919
City Founded: Lodi, California
Founders: Roy W. Allen & Frank Wright
Number of Locations at the Chain’s Peak: over 2,300
Slogan: “All American Food”
Roy W. Allen opened a small walk-up root beer stand in Lodi, California, on June 20, 1919. That night there was a party to celebrate the return of local World War I soldiers.
This was all happening the same year the Volstead Act was enacted. The prohibition of alcohol caused many to look for an alternative. Allen played on the phrase “root beer” to lure folks looking to get their alcoholic fill, even though root beer was no alcoholic beverage. The success of the first stand led to the opening of a second one in Stockton, California, in the summer of 1920. Allen then partnered with his former employee Frank Wright. They leased the Lodi and Stockton locations and focused on an expansion into Sacramento, a much larger city.
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.
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
