A&W here in Canada used to have drive in service (not drive thru). You'd park in your car and a server would come out, take your order, bring it out and hook the tray on your window
I remember those. My hometown, Terrace BC, had that service right up until the early 1980's. I think that they were one of the last franchises in the country to maintain that service before it finally ended.
The mugs are stored in a freezer at -15c. When the rootbeer is poured in the mug a very tiny layer of ice forms in top. There is nothing better than authentic frosted rootbeer.
We don't call pop soda in Canada. It's called pop. Yes A&W is very common all over Canada. A&W root beer is sold in bottles and cans all across Canada.
"Imagine the A&W root beer, AT an A&W restaurant, IN an A&W mug..." Come to Canada so you don't have to imagine it any more! It IS a spiritual experience.
They ruined it when they switched to unsaturated fats in the cooking oil. I don't go for onion rings for them to be healthy. I want them thick, crunchy, sweet, battered rings.
@@SilentBob731 Some of the stores have changed to a new, crunchier coating that doesn't fall off. I quite like it ~ not greasy. I think there's cornmeal in it. They use the same coating for the chicken strips. Yum!
A&W is, to my mind, the absolute best fast food in Canada. Hands down. Especially their breakfast menu, but all around. Burgers too. This version of A&W should be a worldwide thing. It is superior to McDonalds and Burger King in every way.
@@basementbanter366 It's always funny to meet people so young they didn't know that plastic straws have only been around a few years. They always were paper before the '80's.
@@brianbenoit6883 ..The 1960's had plastic straws...you're confusing the paper wrap they had over the plastic straws,before that in the 50's they had metal straws..very few used paper straws in the 1950's.. I do not remember paper straws ever until the last few years when dolts started pushing them..Paper straws were not common, just a brief time in the 50's when they started take out burger joints,before that shakes had metal straws,people didnt use straws for drinks until fast food was more common in the 1960's and they had plastic straws! Your comment is laughable no plastic straws until the 1980's,you must be a toddler as in the 70's nobody seen a paper straw!
I'm a 74 y.o. Canadian who was a teenager back in the 60's. When the first/oldest person of my group of friends got a car (a 1954 Chev), we all piled in, gave Eddy some change for gas, and of course headed to A&W Root Beer. We parked in the A&W parking lot which was two long rows of cars facing each other with a walkway down the middle of the cars where the carhops (made up, almost exclusively, of teen-age gals working hard at their first jobs) walked down to take our order and then later brought us our food and, of course, our giant mugs of root beer. The food and root beer were brought on a tray which attached to the driver's side rolled-down window. A typical A&W order included Papa Burgers, Mama Burgers, Chips, Onion Rings, and a round of Grampa sized mugs of Root Beer-it still amazes me, to this day, how those young gals managed to carry those huge, heavy trays of hamburgers and giant glass mugs of ice cold root beer. As young guys, yeah, we were there for the food, but we were definitely also there to check-out the girls. This was Canada back in the 60's-no drugs and Playboy was just starting up. It was a good time to grow up and A&W was a great place to hang out with friends.
lol !! My name is "Doug". But it was MY 45 Chevy Belaire that everyone piled into and headed for the local A&W drive in. Usually right after the movies was over at the drive in theatre a couple of miles ago.
When I was 16, back in the summer of '66, A&W perched on a 'secondary' highway, just beyond the edge of town, laid out just as you described where I worked in the 'front room' drawing frosty mugs from real beer taps, also orange drink and a combo called 'swamp water' where 'if you had time to lean you had time to clean' and of a Friday night the cars, stretching half a mile down highway, would party while waiting to drive in and around waiting for a spot to open, all very much like you might have seen in that old film, 'American Graffiti' (though our gorgeous mini skirted car hops, some from my high school, danced down the catwalk instead of roller skating (which would have made the scene quite perfect, for a movie)). Back in '66 you needed two hands to hold a teen burger that was *fantastically delicious* , a big beefy tasting perfectly grilled juicy patty (or was it two), mustard, relish, ketchup, long dill pickle slices, lettuce, fresh grilled bacon, real Canadian cheddar cheese melting (not those sheets of sad, yellow dyed, rubber textured, cheese-like substance currently de rigeur), all between a fresh sesame seed covered bun, omg the memory literally has me drooling. 'Scuse me, I'm off to get some breakfast...
The destruction of that marvelous situation began when McDonalds opened on the other side of the highway a little farther out of town and began selling smaller, lower quality burgers cheaper. Sad.
Hey! As a A&W employee I can unbiasly say from well facts and from experience making the food, its one of the healthier if not the healthiest Fast Food chain in Canada. A&W is known for its Root Beer, The Burger Family, Its use of food free of plethora of antibiotics other places use and the iconic mascot the Root Bear.
A&W is actually infact known for its fancy frozen mugs but you CANNOT keep it. Also yes in my opinion it's very good, infact it's my sister's favourite chain.
Just fyi, ALL beef in Canada is steroid, antibiotic and hormone free. They have tasty food but it's no safer than any other company that sources food in Canada. It's a fear based marketing tactic.
I know you're referring to Canada's A&W but there's a funny story from the 80s involving US A&W. They introduced a 1/3 pound burger at the same price as Mcd's 1/4 pound burger to try and compete. It failed miserably. They did focus groups to try and figure out what went wrong. They found out that average American's thought 1/3 is smaller than 1/4. They thought they were paying the same price for less burger.
I was at that meeting, and got frustrated by these people's math abilities. I told them "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve." Then I vanished to the elves.
A & W not only has grass fed beef, they also have organic coffee and have cane sugar in their pop/soda (no high fructose corn syrup). The only fast food chain I eat at.
All beef is grass fed. Most of it is grain finished, not grass finished. A&W beef is just the same normal beef you get anywhere. It's not grass finished.
@@Jane-yg3vz not exactly. Livestock intensive feedlots are all fed grain all the time and kept in the feedlot. They are not pasture grazed. These are the cows that go to market to be sold for grocery stores etc. Yes, in Canada it is necessary to grain finish because of our climate. However, they spend the summer eating grass.
Those mugs are frosted too, they store them in a cooler so when you get your root beer it's icy cold and oh so good! They also have a great full bacon and egg breakfast that's excellent!
Uncle burger, onion rings, root beer float! Eat in store and use a glass mug of various sizes of your order. Paper straws suck! Pull it out of the liquid and it lasts longer. A&W is a great fast food restaurant!
Are they still giving the mugs though? I haven't seen it in my locations since covid. It was one of the reasons I even kept going there, I loved the frosted mugs. Now it's just like any other fast food chain, so I go there rarely.
You can't keep the mug unless you buy it....but you can often find them cheaper in thrift stores. Put them in a freezer and they will keep your drink so cold being frosty when used. The resteraunt keeps the mugs frosted and does not use ice in their drinks but it will slightly freeze the drink as they pour it into the mug
The frosted mug was used instead of ice because when the ice melts it waters down the flavour of the root beer. There’s no ice in a root beer take out drink either.
@@ursulashebear9798 That's not true. They have ice for the take out cups and they certainly will give you ice for your mug if you ask. The store in my town even offers ice for our mugs.
@@Redbeardian I wonder if that depends on the location? I know some locations don't have ice. Besides, I'd prefer no ice, I didn't pay money to get frozen water. I paid money for a drink, so I want money's worth for the drink.
Yes you get a mug if you dine in, if you want one, you can ask for it to go; in a paper cup too. The mug is chilled and you don't get to keep it unless you buy one and if you do buy one you get a clean one to take home. A&W is my fav fast food restaurant and the food is awesome. The onion rings are epic! It used to be a drive in restaurant where you ate in your car, the waiters wore roller skates and they delivered your order to you in your car with this tray that would sit on your window. It was very kewl! If you're ever in Canada you should definitely go there.
Best thing about A&W is their onion rings. They are made in store, thick, and breaded with a crispy crumbling breading. If you get a drink while eating in one of their restaurants they serve it in a cold frosted mug. You are supposed to give the mug back once done, but I think you can buy one. First tried A&W while traveling in Western Canada as a kid, but we did not get an A&W in my city till I was in my mid teens, and now we have two (at one point we had three) in our city. The government made plastic straws illegal, so we have to deal with paper straws, and it tastes awful.
They are so FKN salty jesus christ, I always crave onion rings then I remember how salty they are and I just go buy Cavendish onion rings and deep-fry them at home and they are substantially superior lmao
How on earth is the straw awful. I have yet to have a straw get soggy or disintegrate. Are you leaving the straw in the drink for too long? Are you putting the straw in your mouth instead of just between your lips? I always get paper straws and cannot figure out why people are having problems 🤔
Our favourite burger spot as well. Where we charge our Tesla en route to Sudbury there's a Tim Horton's and a Wendy's. But we prefer the in town A&W even though it's not as convenient.
The crazy thing is A&W came out with a 1/3 pound burger to compete with McDonald’s 1/4 pounder but it failed because most Americans thought 1/3 is less than 1/4
This is a true story. Canada went metric in the 1970's, and my local grocery stores all post prices only per pound on their sales signs. Canada never went metric.
@@tedhext1756 They do that so the price seems lower. Posting a cost that is 2.2 x greater would scare off buyers. Take notice that on the sticker price, it is priced per kg.
@@patmillett8056 True. When we went metric, standardized packaging sizes were also going to be rolled out, which would ruin the entire shape of container scams. Corporations were behind this, but our Conservative ideology rejects change for the better.
I haven't seen an A&W Root Bear commercial for years. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a new Ronald McDonald commercial in ages either. I can still remember the tuba playing the jingle though.
You don't keep the mug, but you can buy them from the restaurant. They sit in a cooler fridge, so the Root Beer is served in a frosted mug. The fries are served in a fryer basket, just for show. If you order the take out at the window, you just get the average disposable wrapping and cups. Yes, we get McDonalds Poutine
I had a mug from the 80's for years that my old man had. It weighed more than any mug had right to and it could have easily killed a man. I need to find a replacement for that killer.
Can you still buy the mug? I have one of the large ones, and after i had bought it, one of the other employees piped up, like "hey, you're not suspossed to sell those".
A&W in Canada when I was young, The servers would roller skate around bringing your order to your car window. They have great burgers and onion rings. Yum!
You can always get the mug in the restaurant.You can buy the mug if you like at least you were once able to.there is a baby burger also. They have Chubby Chicken and sweet potatoes fries
Their burgers were much different in those day, IMHO They would actually take whole tomatoes and whole onions, a head of lettuce slice them up, out of the pantry, and assemble all of the pieces into some of the best hamburgers that anyone could possible imagine.
@@BarkerVancity Nope, A&W doesn't use ice in their drinks. That's why the mugs are frosted to keep your drink cold. Take our drinks are cold but they also do not have ice. A&W does not water down their drinks like every other fast food place.
as a vegetarian in canada i love going here specifically because of their vegetarian burgers! its also good to say that it isnt overcharged, and actually tastes like a regular burger instead of like corn and tofu
Honestly underrated comment, I’m not vegetarian and I still get their vegetarian options just because they taste really good and I feel good about eating them. That said, I very rarely get fast food in the first place, but it’s almost always A&W…
A&W is just different. Their burgers taste like actual hamburgers, they serve literal bacon eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Hot dogs, onion rings and rootbeer floats in a frosted mug. They kept to their roots as a 'diner' instead of whatever all the other fast food places are trying to do these days.
I remember now ordering an omelette sandwich at A&W, and he put a real cream shot in as he broke the eggs and built it from scratch in front of me at a food court in a mall. Personal care.
The fact they have 24 hour burgers is the best. After working a long 10 hour nightshift nothing hits like a fresh teen burger at 7:30 in the morning. Best fast food burger for sure
A&W is pretty popular in Canada, probably around the same amount of restaurants as burger King. And it's food is way better than McDonald's and BK. For fast food it's pretty solid.
Something special about this place is they don't put ice in their drinks because it waters down the pop. They make their machines colder than other restaurants for this reason.
Fun fact: A&W does not put ice in their pop/soft drinks. It is chilled enough to not need it. It is funny when people in the drive through for no ice. 😅
My aunt loves root beer and she doesn't go to A&w because of this reason lol . I'm the same way though I like ice in my drink It's never cold enough for me
The reason isn't because it's chilled enough. It's because they claim their root beer is perfectly balanced and water from the ice would ruin the taste. The glass mugs are pre-chilled, so if you eat in restaurant (definitely the better option) you glass IS the ice cube.
@@BenAnkenmann I used to work at A&W and was told that the pop machines are kept at a very low temperature so ice was not necessary. If it was a water to drink issue, then why are they now selling "Frozen Root Beer"? They don't put straight root beer in a slushie machine, they do add a small amount of water to the machine.
@@paulegger3830 frozen root beer is a different drink, more like a slushie really. I'm sure the pop comes cold out of the machine, but it's the frozen mugs that keep it cold. If you get a root beer to go from a&w it's only cold for a few minutes.
Story...In the late 60's, in Northern BC, my older sister, ( high school,) got a job at our A&W. The uniform was a white blouse, short brown jacket and brown pants with an orange stripe down the side of the leg. A kind of cadet style hat. Hair in a bun. If you're old 😅 you will remember the drive-in! You parked your car, on either side ⁸facing a long middle sidewalk and turned your headlights on. (no indoor seating) The car-hop would come and take your order. She, (no boys allowed) would bring your food on a tray and hook it on your car window. When you were done, you turned your headlights back on and she would come and get the tray. Anyway, they wanted the girls to wear a girdle! ...A tight fitting garment you wore under tight pants... The feminist movement took care of all that!.😅
Our A&W still has the concrete strip. They removed the veranda and use it as a loop for the drive thru. I was born in 1973 and remember going to this drive in so it had to be around until at least the 80s. Also I thought I remembered roller skates, might have that confused with a movie.
I remember the A&Ws having electronic intercom stations in the parking stalls for ordering. And flashers to indicate you were ready to leave and wanted your tray picked up.
you are right that drinking A&W out of a frosted mug is a spiritual experience. They famously do not use ice in their pop (they literally wont give you ice ever), but the root beer starts to freeze a little bit around the edge of the mug so when you take a sip you get 95% root beer and 5% frozen root beer chips. only for the first few minutes until the glass warms up slightly. But yes it is a heavenly experience and its ALWAYS worth it to eat inside just to get the frozen mug.
The difference with A&W is that it is privately owned. It doesn't have the typical single-minded obsession with share prices that most other chains have. It can invest in ingredient quality, ethical behaviour and improved client satisfaction beyond what would be immediatly economically optimal.
I grew up in New York state, and A&W was just like this. It had car window service. The server used to wear roller skates came to your car, took your order, and brought it to your car.
The US still has A&W chains as far as I know, they just have less locations than Canada does, and are probably concentrated in the North East if I had to guess
We also used to have the drive in restaurant where they bring your food to your car while you’re parked. We would all sit as a family in the car eating our yummy burgers. Then my dad would drive us home to our small town. Great memories at A&W. 😊
The onion rings are what it's all about. They're handmade and seasoned with the same seasoning they use on their burger patties. I usually go for a Teen Burger combo with onion rings and a root beer, but if I'm ambitious I'll do the Cheddar Bacon Uncle Burger instead. They also have the best breakfast out of all of the fast food chains we have, including McDonald's. There is an A&W chain in the US, but it's not doing nearly as well as the Canadian version. Their menu is completely different. There are more Canadian restaurants than American ones despite 1/9 of the population. And they're expanding rapidly. A lot of their locations are now shared with Petro-Canada gas stations, with a drive-thru and everything.
You wanted to know how common A & W is in Canada... so I looked it up. Here's the number of locations of a number of chains in Canada (from most to least): 3,584 Tim Horton's 2,874 Subway 1,448 Starbucks 1,362 McDonald's 1,060 A & W 709 Dairy Queen 653 KFC 604 Domino's Pizza 595 7-Eleven 584 Pizza Hut 424 Wendy's 368 Burger King 291 Harvey's In the U.S., there are 506 A & W restaurants still operational. Best meal: Teen burger, onion rings, root beer. After obtaining, open the burger, add a couple onion rings to said burger, close burger, eat. This only works with place that have really good onion rings, so your mileage may vary. Also, the mascot is a bear. Have a nice day!
@@kingjames4886 My local A&W is pretty consistently good. Guess I'm just lucky! :P Sorry to hear you're in one of the places where that's not the case.
My dad worked for A&W in the 60’s in Oakville, Ontario. He was a go between from the kitchen to the servers who would deliver the food to car, while wearing roller skates. While we don’t have all that anymore A&W is quite good. And the mascot is “the root bear 😊”
A&W started as root beer stands in the US, and later expanded into burgers, developing into the Burger Family, which started becoming popular as drive-in locations. In the 80s, as increasingly being sidelined by the bigger guys, those Canadian standalone sites were sold for redevelopment and the chain moved into food courts of shopping malls. They typically had exclusivity there as the burger option, becoming a go to for mall rats and the like. Both the American and Canadian sides of the company started selling the root beer outside of their restaurants through supermarkets, corner stores, most wherever. The American parent operation got an offer from Unilever for the Canadian business, during which time they turned back to people’s nostalgia, complete with 50’s style new standalone restaurants, and there they changed the experience substantially. Unilever didn’t so much “run” it as the franchise owners came up with ideas, leading to they and the Canadian management buying the organisation. Bringing back the ice chilled mugs, using actual metal forks for poutine in the standalone sites, ensuring ethical treatment of their food sources and such and advertising that, while keeping prices competitive. The mugs and the like aren’t for takeout or take home as souvenirs, although I remember seeing one location that did sell them at one point. Some locations actually have equipment to make root beer onsite. The mascot is the A&W Root Bear - “Rooty”. Canadians of a certain age remember him becoming a celebrity when the sale of bottled A&W Root Beer in stores started, completely with a tuba based jolly walking theme song, which you can find on UA-cam, and it plays in the back of our minds as we enjoy a meal there. The current commercials feature an actor as the typical A&W location manager, proud of the product and happy to make the customers happy. The Teen Burger is their Big Mac/Whopper equivalent, with the extra fixings. The various others tend to focus on different amounts of meat between the buns. As a rule A&W’s menu and burgers are tuned to Canadian tastes much more than McDonald’s or Burger King.
so here's a fun fact I'm not seeing a lot of people talk about. I don't know if this is just a Calgary thing, but A&W is also very closely tied to the vintage car scene. when passing by an A&W, it's very common to see people parking their old mustangs, Chevys, and sometimes those old box cars idk the name of, and just having impromptu car shows. Also, my go too at A&W definitely has to be either a teen burger or chubby chicken with extra salted fries and a root beer
Not a Calgary thing, at all. One car club in Saskatoon has a cruise in every other Saturday at our 8th Street A & W, starting mid May. Everyone is invited. The restaurant's lot and the lot beside, can be packed with old cars. Fun time.
Cruise nights! My A&W in Ontario did it every Tuesday from May to October. Loved seeing folks bring out thier classic cars, it livened up an otherwise boring mid-week shift.
Oh man I used to love teen burgers. And whistledogs. I've been vegetarian for almost 20 years now, and A&W was pretty much the first place in Canada where I could get a proper vegetarian burger that tasted like an actual burger and wasn't made of black beans. When A&W released their beyond meat burger it was like mana from heaven for me. I buy them regularly still. I have even tried to replicate their beyond meat cheeseburger at home but it's just not the same.
@@K1ddkanuckMy daughter misses the old veggies burgers. She is vegetarian and doesn't like the taste of meat. And so doesn't like beyond meat. I wish they would bring that their old veggie burgers as an option.
Same here in Georgetown, Ontario. Every Thursday evening, the A & W parking lot is filled with vintage cars, such as Camero's, Mustangs, Nova's, Corvettes, etc.
When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, we used to go to A&W and it was not a sit-in restaurant at the time. It had parking spaces under a canopy where we could order right from the car. The waitresses would bring our food right to our car on a tray that would hook onto the car window on the driver's side. They even served the root beer in a cold frosted mug. The menu has expanded since those days, and the restaurant is dine-in now-a-days (no more parking and ordering from the car). I enjoy a mama burger or a teen burger from time to time these days, and I mostly just go through the drive-through.
Frosted mugs even. I’ve been following your channel and love that you’re educating your fellow Americans about us. We are basically the same people with some idiosyncrasies to make each other a little different. The main thing is we are brothers and despite our differences we are more the same than we are different.
Canada has banned single use plastics, so most restaurants have paper straws now 😢 There are a few that have found biodegradable "plastic" straws, and those are so nice to have.
@@breezybre2670 which part? "The Regulations prohibit the manufacture, import and sale of single-use plastic checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware made from or containing problematic plastics, ring carriers, stir sticks, and straws." - from our government website. A quick Google search of "Canada single use plastic ban" will give you a lot of sources on this.
@@Sally-ih6ls We have them here in Edmonton. 90% don't but we have them at the local restaurants; not the big chains. Perhaps I interpet the sp called ban differently as it has been struck down in court and now the government is appealing it. So that is very much up in the air. How crazy is it that hey even wnat to ban single use straws made of biodegradable material? I think we need to know what they are putting in these paper straws since clearly they are dissolving in our drinks!
When I was young A&W was a 50 style of drive in ( not a drive through) were servers would come to your car and hook the tray to your window. The girls served you wearing rollerstakes just like the movies. Brandon, Manitoba was the last A&W drive in North America which allowed my children had the same experienced I had as a kid!
When I first saw American Graffiti movie in the 70's, I was now living in New Jersey. The drive in place gave me flashbacks to A&W that I grew up with in Montreal. Happy ending..... I am back in Canada, and again enjoying A&W.
A&W stands for “Amburgers and Wootbeer” I live in a small city in BC, roughly 10,000 people. We have one McDonald’s, one Dairy Queen, no Burger King and two A&W‘s.
In the 80s, they had an iconic theme song as popular as McDonalds I'm loving it theme, except there were no lyrics, just a solo tuba playing a bouncy fun theme while the bear mascot waddled around around. The tuba player was from the Vancouver symphony.
Probably the best burger joint at this point in time, their burgers aren't all squashed like most burger places, and it tastes very good, their breakfasts are also very good...
I have a young Japanese grandson whose family usually visits me once a year. His first visit anywhere when he arrives is to A&W. He is positive that A&W has the best food (especially hamburgers) in the world.
You certainly missed a few key things about A&W here. The breakfast menu is top tier. They offer bacon and egg breakfasts with your egg cooked however you want it. The eggs are actually real eggs too. They don't come from a carton like McDonalds or come pre-cooked like Burger King. It's real breakfast food. Yes, there is a baby burger. That is part of the kid's menu. It's essentially a small, plain burger. My order of choice is a Grandpa burger with 3 slices of cheese, no mayo. I get it with either the poutine or onion rings (depending on my mood), and a root beer of course. Always ask for some root beer suckers when you order. They are free to those who ask. The onion rings are an iconic part of the A&W lineup. All of the ingredients at A&W come fresh as groceries and are prepped in the morning by the prep cook. This means full heads of lettuce for the burgers which are washed and cut up. Full sized onions which are washed and sliced up. The onion rings are fresh made in the morning by slicing them, making a batter, dipping and coating them, then arranging them on MANY flat trays to be cooked throughout the day. They are officially the best onion rings that you can possibly ever order. Wen eating in the restaurant, you can get a frosted mug for your drink. They have mug freezers at the counter for this purpose. Plastic straws were banned in Canada a few years back. I still don't understand why places use paper straws though. Everybody hates paper straws! 711 uses cellulose straws which are exactly like plastic, they just don't melt in your drink or taste bad like the paper straws.
My favourite used to be the Grandma Burger but was discontinued. A prime rib burger with horseradish sauce. Most Canadian fast food places have a poutine offering.
When I was a teen, there was an A&W in Coquitlam, BC that was like a skiing chalet inside with one of those large round fireplaces with a round bench around it as well as booths. Wonderfully cozy & enticing for our youth group. Many hours spent there! Warning: ⚠️ if you get the Root Beer Float… listen to the waitress & don’t poke the bear, I mean ice cream, as it WILL turn into a volcano!🌋 When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the drive-in on Kingsway in Burnaby, BC. Car hops, roller skates, the works! He found out they had a secret menu & once I knew they made tacos… 🌮 that’s all I ordered there. The best tacos I’ve ever had! Miss the tacos 🌮 & my dad. ❤
I love A&W and fondly remember going to the Drive-In service as a child. They used to have ‘Baby’ burger’s and ‘Baby’ size root beer in the tiniest of mugs. I still go to A&W to enjoy the best plant based burgers and cold mug root beer.
As an employee at an a&w, my go to is either the chubby chicken cruncher (extra chubby sauce or mayo) with rings, or i get a poutine but i add a seasoned burger patty broken up on top and grilled onions. Both are so good, especially with a strawberry shake!
Yes, we chill the mugs and offer them to anyone who wants to use in-store instead of paper cups and if they want to, and are at one of the locations that allow it, we let you buy them, though most people just steal them. We also serve real bacon and eggs for breakfast which is unique for our fast food market and there are off the menu items like the animal burger (a 5 patty grandpa burger) or a Frankenstein burger (a 7+ patty grandpa burger) It is the main high quality fast food option in Canada and all the burgers have seasoning salt on them
A&W was nicknamed "Arrive and Wait" by my parents, as the original restaurant was the traditional drive-in where you parked your car and STAYED IN IT, while waiting for waitresses to come. When they did, they took your order, and then delivered it on window-mounted trays. I worked at a modern-day one for a full summer, and i'm telling you, it's fantastic. The coolest thing for them in my opinion is the fact that they offer you BACON AND EGG BREAKFASTS in a hurry! These are VERY popular, and VERY delish. A&W has been, and always will be, my favourite fast-food burger joint, cuz it's all that and much more. P.S., those mugs are chilled ina freezer, and are used cold instead of ice. And yes, you can buy them (last time i checked, the price was 12.99 a mug)!
I miss those days, sitting in the back seat of my Dad's Gremlin. And they would hang the tray of food on your car window. No ice and the frosted glass mugs are the only way I enjoy a root beer.
Worked as a gas pump jockey in the sixties across from an A&W drive in and lived on Momma Cheese burgers. Later in the early eighties I would take my wife and son to the same place in my 1965 Corvette convertible. Great memories. A&W drive inns were hot rod central in the muscle car years. Sad to see the drive inns go but the teenburger is still the best burger sold.
@@rooky55 The A&W in my hometown of Regina Saskatchewan still has car rallies to honour those memories. They call them "Cruisin the Dub" days, and they are AWESOME to attend
My first job as a kid was at A&W in our local mall in the 80's. Not only do you get your root beer in a frosted glass but you can get a root beer float with vanilla ice cream. No,you don't get to keep the mug but you can buy one. The food is great!
The mug are refrigirated. It's to replace ice cubes so that your drinks don't get diluted. They only hand them to those who eat inside the restorant. Then you return it to a place where the employes can grad them to wash them the good old fassion way. They also have baskets for the fries, plates, forks, and butter knives from the breakfast menu. Also, if you want to take a mug back home. You can, at a price of about 20$. Price may vary. As for the bugger menu, they also have 'Beyond Meat Bugger' which is a vegin bugger.
I used to work at A&W and my coworkers used to call the “Cheddar bacon uncle burger” the “Better shaken buncle hurger.” My go to order is the Mozza Burger with either onion rings or sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo with iced tea. All the onion rings are made fresh in the restaurant, from slicing the onion to seasoning and cooking ❤
Onion rings with chipotle mayo sounds so good. I always want to try the onion rings but I tried them years ago and they were too salty so I'm scared they're still that way
One time I went to A&W and I ordered a double cheeseburger and I kinda got scolded by the cashier and was told “it’s called the papa!” It was hilarious. A&W is awesome
My Favourite fast food burger is the A&W Mozza Burger. The best!! Their onion rings are amazing. They are everywhere and often in gas stations in small towns. Very popular
My favourite too! I didn't see it on the menu in the video, so I'll describe it - it's basically the same as the teen burger, but with mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar and they change the sauce to a thousand islands dressing.
A&W is every where in Canada. From full serve restaurant to kiosks, to gas stations. Good quality ingredients and thus not the cheapest fast food spot. Very good though, I recommend trying it. Their onion rings are killer.
A&w is still a.restaurant in the US theres like 500 or so. It all started in the US. Canada and US are now seperate entities but they weren't always. The great rootbear was the mascot for both.
I live in Las Vegas we had some but it closed down the next closest is 30 miles away. It doesn’t have all the extra stuff the Canadian one has. It would just be stereotypical American food like hamburgers, French fries and root beer.
@@unknownruby it just has the American food like hot dogs and hamburgers. It doesn’t have poutine and breakfast stuff and whatever Canadian stuff was added to appeal to the Canadian palette.
@@brandonneumann5294 i don't understand how breakfast is more canadian than American lol but ok. Now poutine i get but basically every fast food chain has it in Canada because it's a super easy upsell that sells itself. We actually discontinued the hotdogs and only bring them back occassionally and then they sell like hotcakes.
@@unknownruby All that chubby chicken and maple syrup with moose meat or whatever y’all have over there we don’t have. It’s strictly American food like I said. I don’t know the full Canadian menu.
The frozen glass mug is a thing but they're slowly phasing it out, probably because it cost them money to operate. It was unreal, the Root Beer would slightly freeze on the side, it was soooo cold and crisp. A spiritual experience like you said!
The places where they’re being phased out are mainly locations in food courts inside malls. The places that still have them are generally called “A&W Restaurant” and not just “A&W” like the ones inside food courts as you’ll notice on the storefront signage.
I'm 65 years old, back in the day, when you went to an A&W, it was not an eat-in restaurant rather, you drove up and put your headlight on to indicate you wanted to order or needed something, and the person would come up to you on roller-skates and take your order. When you receive your meal, it is brought to you on a tray designed to hang on your window. Today, my favourite meal is a Root beer, teen burger and onion rings or sweet potato fries. They also have their own spice that you can buy in the restaurant.
Now I've got their commercial song stuck in my head. "Let's all go to A&W Food's more fun at A&W Get a mug of root beer or maybe two or three Pick the perfect size from the Burger Family"
The mug is kept in a freezer so they never have to put ice in the mug and the soda doesn't get diluted! A&W also has the best onion rings!! A&W is my favourite fast food burger place
I have traveled across Canada a few times and it's amazing to see A&W in so many places, but that traveling has also opened my eyes to just how HUGE our country is. Sorry you are so far from your Teen Burgers, it's just 15 k for me lol
@@joannefletcher1586 The distance wouldn't be bad but my car has issues so I only get out of town a couple of times a year when I can bum a ride. In truth, I haven't had a chance to stop at an A&W in the past few years.
Back in the 60s a&w was a drive-in with car hops. And the rootbeer mugs came in mama, papa and baby sizes. And you could pay a little extra to keep the mugs. I still have one of the baby mugs.
I remember the commercial with the A&W root bear when I was a kid back in the 80’s. I can also remember going to the drive up A&W near my house. I would not say that A&W is as common as McDonalds (literally everywhere, even in Walmart), but they are as common as Burger King, KFC, or Wendys. We have an A&W about 5 min away.
I used to be a huge fan of A & W and my favourite burger was the teen burger the one time of the year I get A & W is when they are doing their burgers to beat MS
The brew bar is a new addition in recent years, but as others have mentioned the frozen mugs are kept there, and you can get a regular paper fast food cup, or by purchase, get yourself one of the different sized mugs, why go for a small mug I would never know, but the large mug is way to go. I am commenting at the ten minute mark, so Ice Cream Floats are another A&W staple… *Must Have!!* if you’re trying their food for the first time. My favourite is the Double Buddy burger, fried onions, add bacon and cheese. Get a pair of them~. Also!! The chicken tenders if they are the same are called “Love me Tenders” in the box they come to the restaurant in.
takes them forever to make the chubby chicken though. i remember them running me through the drive through to the parking lot and they would bring it out and it took them eons. I was wondering if they forgot about me
Wow!... I forgot about the Whistle Dog. Split lengthwise and cooked on the grill. With mustard and relish, it was my favourite as a kid. Mmmmmmmmm....😋🌭
A&W chicken was far better than KFC, it was my absolute fav from any A&W food. Was so sad when they discontinued it, as Im not a big beef fan, I seldome go there now. The chicken strips dont taste the same as the chicken did.
You can buy the mug, but if you don't buy it, you have to leave it at the restaurant when you're done. If you get take out, the pop comes in a disposable cup. A&W Root Beer is sold in most supermarkets and convenience stores. Some stores also carry A&W Cream Soda. Plastic straws have been banned in Canada, so restaurants provide paper straws with cold drinks nowadays. My favourite item is the Mozza Burger which has Mozzarella cheese, bacon, and a special sauce.
Out on the Island we don't get the Cream Soda anymore.. For a time it was the only Diet Creamsoda we could get.... I go with Zivia now... but I still miss the Old A&W stuff😀
You can in fact buy your own A&W mug. There are still A&W restaurants in the US. They are headquartered in Lexington Kentucky and have 900+ locations as per the US A&W wikipedia page. My favourite order is a Chuby Chicken Burger with onion rings and either root beer or a milk shake.
At first I was kind of laughing at how surprised you were. But when you made the Pepsi analogy I can defiantly see why you're so surprised. To answer your questions: When you eat in at A&W they give you your drink in a chilled mug, if you eat out or go through the drive thru, they give you a traditional paper cup. And no, you don't keep the mug, you leave it near the garbage with your tray when you leave. The chilled mug makes their rootbear taste much better. The foam freezes and is almost like a rootbeer slushy. Paper straws are becoming more and more common in Canada, so much so it's more common to get a paper straw then a plastic one. Mcdonalds, Wendys, etc. also only have paper straws in Canada. They don't really fall apart but they do become soggy if you don't finish your drink in a couple hours. Poutine is available at almost every fast food restaurant in Canada
Pepsico actually owned the American chain at one point, until they spun off their restaurant brands (A&W, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Long John Silver) into Yum Brands. A&W and Long John Silver eventually left Yum Brands.
5:18 I'd say at least half, if not more, of the A&Ws in Canada are tiny in-stores and a drive-thru attached to a gas station, usually open to the convenience store side. It's quite convenient.
Tyler, as a Canadian, living in Connecticut, who spends 5 months in Prince Edward Island I really like your videos. I am 73 when I grew up A&W was a popular Restaurant where I lived in Michigan as a child. The rootbeer was always great the restaurants had these large wooden barrels that had a tap on them to serve the rootbeer. They always had frosted mugs even small kid-sized mugs. The restaurants were drive-ins with waitresses who clipped a tray to a partially rolled-down driver's window. You just drove in, and the waitress would come to your car take the order, and deliver the food. This was before McDonald's was taken over by Ray Krock and transformed into the McDonald's restaurants you see today. The food was good, but today's Canadian A&W is superior. A&W in Canada emphasizes wholesome food with no hormones eggs, chicken and beef fed without hormones, real sugar in the rootbeer. It is the best rootbeer. I also worked at McDonald's in 1966 all we had were the single burgers or double burgers with or without cheese, the newly introduced fillet of fish, and one size of fries from fresh potatoes. Crew members would arrive at 7:00 and spend 3 hours getting 100-200lbs of potatoes ready for the day. The best fries you will ever have. By the way there as still 506 A&W restaurants in the US many in California. Last time I was in one in the US I was extremely disappointed.
A&W serve great spicy chicken at a reasonable price. Many years ago, they had a product called Chubby Chicken. It was really tasty, but, for some reason, disappeared. This was when it was a mostly drive-in business. The mugs of root beer are still served chilled.
A&W here in Canada used to have drive in service (not drive thru). You'd park in your car and a server would come out, take your order, bring it out and hook the tray on your window
Lights on for service
Those were the good old days
I remember those. My hometown, Terrace BC, had that service right up until the early 1980's. I think that they were one of the last franchises in the country to maintain that service before it finally ended.
The only restaurant which has that now is Whitespot.
@@lenbeedle yeah there's a whitespot near me that has drive in food service. Such an afterthought though, drive in the back parking lot
The mugs are stored in a freezer at -15c. When the rootbeer is poured in the mug a very tiny layer of ice forms in top. There is nothing better than authentic frosted rootbeer.
one of my favorite things to get. and in the summer i get the root beer float.
the mugs are everything
There is no ice in rootbeer so it does not dilute the drink, so they frosted the mugs to compensate to keep chilled.
We don't call pop soda in Canada. It's called pop.
Yes A&W is very common all over Canada.
A&W root beer is sold in bottles and cans all across Canada.
@@bobbanks7275depends where in canada and also how old you are. soda is definitely becoming waaay more popular.
What I really like about A&W is that when you buy the burger the burger looks exactly like the picture!!!
Its real and fresh ingredient. And thats why they are the best.
Really though?
Order a buddy burger. 😅
Compare to the picture.
@@RyanStonedonCanadianGamingjust did and looked exactly like the picture
It really does
@@KSIHEROX must be my shotty city and the locations.
"Imagine the A&W root beer, AT an A&W restaurant, IN an A&W mug..." Come to Canada so you don't have to imagine it any more! It IS a spiritual experience.
For real! It feels wrong to get anything other than root beer to drink from a&w
Best onion rings EVER!
And hand made
They lost me a bit when they changed from battered onion rings to breaded.
They ruined it when they switched to unsaturated fats in the cooking oil. I don't go for onion rings for them to be healthy. I want them thick, crunchy, sweet, battered rings.
@@SilentBob731 Some of the stores have changed to a new, crunchier coating that doesn't fall off. I quite like it ~ not greasy. I think there's cornmeal in it. They use the same coating for the chicken strips. Yum!
Agreed
We blew Tyler's mind today with the grass fed beef, chilled mugs and paper straws. 🤣😂
Paper straws are the devil.
A&W is, to my mind, the absolute best fast food in Canada. Hands down. Especially their breakfast menu, but all around. Burgers too. This version of A&W should be a worldwide thing. It is superior to McDonalds and Burger King in every way.
Amazing what government imposed food quality standards do for food and flavour! Lol.
@@basementbanter366 It's always funny to meet people so young they didn't know that plastic straws have only been around a few years. They always were paper before the '80's.
@@brianbenoit6883 ..The 1960's had plastic straws...you're confusing the paper wrap they had over the plastic straws,before that in the 50's they had metal straws..very few used paper straws in the 1950's..
I do not remember paper straws ever until the last few years when dolts started pushing them..Paper straws were not common, just a brief time in the 50's when they started take out burger joints,before that shakes had metal straws,people didnt use straws for drinks until fast food was more common in the 1960's and they had plastic straws!
Your comment is laughable no plastic straws until the 1980's,you must be a toddler as in the 70's nobody seen a paper straw!
I'm a 74 y.o. Canadian who was a teenager back in the 60's. When the first/oldest person of my group of friends got a car (a 1954 Chev), we all piled in, gave Eddy some change for gas, and of course headed to A&W Root Beer. We parked in the A&W parking lot which was two long rows of cars facing each other with a walkway down the middle of the cars where the carhops (made up, almost exclusively, of teen-age gals working hard at their first jobs) walked down to take our order and then later brought us our food and, of course, our giant mugs of root beer. The food and root beer were brought on a tray which attached to the driver's side rolled-down window. A typical A&W order included Papa Burgers, Mama Burgers, Chips, Onion Rings, and a round of Grampa sized mugs of Root Beer-it still amazes me, to this day, how those young gals managed to carry those huge, heavy trays of hamburgers and giant glass mugs of ice cold root beer. As young guys, yeah, we were there for the food, but we were definitely also there to check-out the girls. This was Canada back in the 60's-no drugs and Playboy was just starting up. It was a good time to grow up and A&W was a great place to hang out with friends.
lol !! My name is "Doug". But it was MY 45 Chevy Belaire that everyone piled into and headed for the local A&W drive in. Usually right after the movies was over at the drive in theatre a couple of miles ago.
Man... I wish I was born earlier 😂🇨🇦🍻
I wish I grew up in those days 😢
When I was 16,
back in the summer of '66,
A&W perched on a 'secondary' highway,
just beyond the edge of town,
laid out just as you described where
I worked in the 'front room' drawing frosty mugs from real beer taps,
also orange drink and a combo called 'swamp water' where
'if you had time to lean you had time to clean' and
of a Friday night the cars, stretching half a mile down highway, would party while
waiting to drive in and around waiting for a spot to open,
all very much like you might have seen
in that old film, 'American Graffiti'
(though our gorgeous mini skirted car hops, some from my high school,
danced down the catwalk instead of roller skating
(which would have made the scene quite perfect, for a movie)).
Back in '66 you needed two hands to hold a teen burger that was *fantastically delicious* ,
a big beefy tasting perfectly grilled juicy patty (or was it two),
mustard, relish, ketchup, long dill pickle slices, lettuce, fresh grilled bacon,
real Canadian cheddar cheese melting
(not those sheets of sad, yellow dyed, rubber textured, cheese-like substance currently de rigeur),
all between a fresh sesame seed covered bun,
omg the memory literally has me drooling.
'Scuse me, I'm off to get some breakfast...
The destruction of that marvelous situation began
when McDonalds opened on the other side of the highway
a little farther out of town and
began selling smaller, lower quality burgers cheaper. Sad.
Hey! As a A&W employee I can unbiasly say from well facts and from experience making the food, its one of the healthier if not the healthiest Fast Food chain in Canada. A&W is known for its Root Beer, The Burger Family, Its use of food free of plethora of antibiotics other places use and the iconic mascot the Root Bear.
A&W is actually infact known for its fancy frozen mugs but you CANNOT keep it. Also yes in my opinion it's very good, infact it's my sister's favourite chain.
Just goes to show any fast food chain can be more health and environment oriented if willing to sacrifice a few pennies of profit.
@@AceMatthew25414they used to sell the mugs. You couldn't take the one in the restaurant home but you could buy one to bring home.
@@mjking6162
I assume they still sell them.
I worked there years ago and I bought one. I used it yesterday.
Just fyi, ALL beef in Canada is steroid, antibiotic and hormone free. They have tasty food but it's no safer than any other company that sources food in Canada. It's a fear based marketing tactic.
I know you're referring to Canada's A&W but there's a funny story from the 80s involving US A&W. They introduced a 1/3 pound burger at the same price as Mcd's 1/4 pound burger to try and compete. It failed miserably. They did focus groups to try and figure out what went wrong. They found out that average American's thought 1/3 is smaller than 1/4. They thought they were paying the same price for less burger.
Wow! I want to say, shocking? But I’m really not
I was at that meeting, and got frustrated by these people's math abilities. I told them "I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
Then I vanished to the elves.
Their breakfast is great! I personally love the chicken burgers better than the hamburgers.
LOL!Oh,Americans...duh!
😲🤣
To answer your question, Poutines are very normal at fast food restaurants now. Mcdonalds, Wendy's, Harvey's, all of them have it.
Except all that food is nasty. 😂
Try Smoke’s poutinerie.
I came to say this as well. KFC, Pope's, Five Guys, Burger King; all have varieties of poutine.
Don't forget Burger King
You're gonna send him down another Canadian fast food chain rabbit hole mentioning Harvey's.
@@Narissis i was gonna say...
as a classic car guy..we used to go to A&W every sunday ,where we all meet ..order food, and compare our hot rods..good times
They still do that at our A&W. They play great classic tunes over the speakers. It’s a good time.
We did this as well. Only stopped a year or two ago because people couldn't stop driving like asses.
people go to pony corals
A & W not only has grass fed beef, they also have organic coffee and have cane sugar in their pop/soda (no high fructose corn syrup). The only fast food chain I eat at.
All beef is grass fed. Most of it is grain finished, not grass finished. A&W beef is just the same normal beef you get anywhere. It's not grass finished.
@@Jane-yg3vz not exactly. Livestock intensive feedlots are all fed grain all the time and kept in the feedlot. They are not pasture grazed. These are the cows that go to market to be sold for grocery stores etc.
Yes, in Canada it is necessary to grain finish because of our climate. However, they spend the summer eating grass.
Really cane sugar in soda, is it passover kosher?
@@julie_lynn2023 Don't need grain finish in Canada. They can survive on hay, which is the same stuff that grows in the pastures during the summer.
@@Jane-yg3vz Well their beef is definitely fed something different than other beef because it tastes very different and I don't like the flavour.
Those mugs are frosted too, they store them in a cooler so when you get your root beer it's icy cold and oh so good! They also have a great full bacon and egg breakfast that's excellent!
Uncle burger, onion rings, root beer float! Eat in store and use a glass mug of various sizes of your order. Paper straws suck! Pull it out of the liquid and it lasts longer. A&W is a great fast food restaurant!
@@Victory-hj2djagreed: paper straws DO SUCK- literally 🧐 🙄
The secret to the burgers is garlic salt seasoning.
Are they still giving the mugs though? I haven't seen it in my locations since covid. It was one of the reasons I even kept going there, I loved the frosted mugs. Now it's just like any other fast food chain, so I go there rarely.
You can't keep the mug unless you buy it....but you can often find them cheaper in thrift stores. Put them in a freezer and they will keep your drink so cold being frosty when used. The resteraunt keeps the mugs frosted and does not use ice in their drinks but it will slightly freeze the drink as they pour it into the mug
The frosted mug was used instead of ice because when the ice melts it waters down the flavour of the root beer. There’s no ice in a root beer take out drink either.
Actually A&W does not put ice in any drink.
@@ursulashebear9798 That's not true. They have ice for the take out cups and they certainly will give you ice for your mug if you ask. The store in my town even offers ice for our mugs.
@@Redbeardian I wonder if that depends on the location? I know some locations don't have ice.
Besides, I'd prefer no ice, I didn't pay money to get frozen water. I paid money for a drink, so I want money's worth for the drink.
I have 2 mugs at home and I keep them in the freezer. I`ve had them for 40 years
Yes you get a mug if you dine in, if you want one, you can ask for it to go; in a paper cup too. The mug is chilled and you don't get to keep it unless you buy one and if you do buy one you get a clean one to take home. A&W is my fav fast food restaurant and the food is awesome. The onion rings are epic! It used to be a drive in restaurant where you ate in your car, the waiters wore roller skates and they delivered your order to you in your car with this tray that would sit on your window. It was very kewl! If you're ever in Canada you should definitely go there.
Best thing about A&W is their onion rings. They are made in store, thick, and breaded with a crispy crumbling breading. If you get a drink while eating in one of their restaurants they serve it in a cold frosted mug. You are supposed to give the mug back once done, but I think you can buy one. First tried A&W while traveling in Western Canada as a kid, but we did not get an A&W in my city till I was in my mid teens, and now we have two (at one point we had three) in our city. The government made plastic straws illegal, so we have to deal with paper straws, and it tastes awful.
Tell me you don't use a straw to drink A & W root beer!!!!! That's blasphemous!!!
I can't stand their onion rings, they are my least favorite of all onion rings I've had in my life.
"supposed to" I have so many of these mugs lol.
They are so FKN salty jesus christ, I always crave onion rings then I remember how salty they are and I just go buy Cavendish onion rings and deep-fry them at home and they are substantially superior lmao
How on earth is the straw awful. I have yet to have a straw get soggy or disintegrate. Are you leaving the straw in the drink for too long? Are you putting the straw in your mouth instead of just between your lips? I always get paper straws and cannot figure out why people are having problems 🤔
A&W has the Best quality burgers out of the usual fast food spots in my opinion. Not to mention a mug of ice cold root beer is just awesome.
Our favourite burger spot as well. Where we charge our Tesla en route to Sudbury there's a Tim Horton's and a Wendy's. But we prefer the in town A&W even though it's not as convenient.
In my opinion Harvey's has the best burgers 🍔 for a burger joint
@@glen3679 Plus Harvey's is a Canadian company which is Better than Burger King.
@@glen3679 Ive never had harveys because growing up my dad always said their burgers were gross but it was probably bs and i should try them out!
@@glen3679 They used to be at the Home Depot Hardware Store, but not any longer. What happened to them in Western Canada?
The crazy thing is A&W came out with a 1/3 pound burger to compete with McDonald’s 1/4 pounder but it failed because most Americans thought 1/3 is less than 1/4
Which is demoralizing.
That is hilarious. The country who praises their fraction based measuring system but don't know how fractions work. 🤦♂🤦♂😂😂
This is a true story. Canada went metric in the 1970's, and my local grocery stores all post prices only per pound on their sales signs. Canada never went metric.
@@tedhext1756 They do that so the price seems lower. Posting a cost that is 2.2 x greater would scare off buyers. Take notice that on the sticker price, it is priced per kg.
@@patmillett8056 True. When we went metric, standardized packaging sizes were also going to be rolled out, which would ruin the entire shape of container scams. Corporations were behind this, but our Conservative ideology rejects change for the better.
A&W is actually really popular for its breakfast. I've never seen an A&W that isn't absolutely packed with people eating a full or canadian breakfast.
I love their bacon n eggers! Might have to grab one again some time.
The mascot is a bear... The A&W Root Bear...
I haven't seen an A&W Root Bear commercial for years. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a new Ronald McDonald commercial in ages either. I can still remember the tuba playing the jingle though.
Apparently I met him at the A.N.E. as a toddler and he scared the crap out of me.😱
@@Thundarr100ronald was put out of commission
I'm 26 years old and I'm just realising this now, for the first time, that it's a play on rootbeer. Never really questioned why it was a bear before
See the bear, hear a tuba.
You don't keep the mug, but you can buy them from the restaurant. They sit in a cooler fridge, so the Root Beer is served in a frosted mug. The fries are served in a fryer basket, just for show. If you order the take out at the window, you just get the average disposable wrapping and cups.
Yes, we get McDonalds Poutine
they buy size of mig tiny mug medium large i have tiny fits for toddler hand to grip and medium and largest heavyb popular u see in restaurant
But do we want McDonalds Poutine...
We have a couple A&W mugs at home from my dad's childhood. He would get a few as little gifts now and then
I had a mug from the 80's for years that my old man had. It weighed more than any mug had right to and it could have easily killed a man. I need to find a replacement for that killer.
Can you still buy the mug? I have one of the large ones, and after i had bought it, one of the other employees piped up, like "hey, you're not suspossed to sell those".
A&W in Canada when I was young, The servers would roller skate around bringing your order to your car window. They have great burgers and onion rings. Yum!
You can always get the mug in the restaurant.You can buy the mug if you like at least you were once able to.there is a baby burger also. They have Chubby Chicken and sweet potatoes fries
So basically you like to pay for a cup of ice with about a third of the drink you wanted left to fit in.
Yes and the marketing was brilliant “ hop in the car, come as you are to A&W “
Their burgers were much different in those day, IMHO They would actually take whole tomatoes and whole onions, a head of lettuce slice them up, out of the pantry, and assemble all of the pieces into some of the best hamburgers that anyone could possible imagine.
@@BarkerVancity Nope, A&W doesn't use ice in their drinks. That's why the mugs are frosted to keep your drink cold. Take our drinks are cold but they also do not have ice. A&W does not water down their drinks like every other fast food place.
as a vegetarian in canada i love going here specifically because of their vegetarian burgers! its also good to say that it isnt overcharged, and actually tastes like a regular burger instead of like corn and tofu
Honestly underrated comment, I’m not vegetarian and I still get their vegetarian options just because they taste really good and I feel good about eating them.
That said, I very rarely get fast food in the first place, but it’s almost always A&W…
A&W is just different. Their burgers taste like actual hamburgers, they serve literal bacon eggs and pancakes for breakfast. Hot dogs, onion rings and rootbeer floats in a frosted mug. They kept to their roots as a 'diner' instead of whatever all the other fast food places are trying to do these days.
I remember now ordering an omelette sandwich at A&W, and he put a real cream shot in as he broke the eggs and built it from scratch in front of me at a food court in a mall. Personal care.
you'd be surprised about the pancakes... :|
When someone says A&W i think restaurant, the rootbeer is just a part of that.
Exactly
I was surprised to see that it was the 2nd largest hamburger chain. I only see A&W's in food courts.
Their commercials are quite funny
Common in Winnepeg that I can assure you. @@kontiuka
Don’t tell Tyler about their chubby chicken !
The fact they have 24 hour burgers is the best. After working a long 10 hour nightshift nothing hits like a fresh teen burger at 7:30 in the morning. Best fast food burger for sure
Since the 60's drive in restaurant with servers on roller skates, I have only eaten their Teen burger. Yum.
@@rosered103my 2nd favourite after the mozza burger .
@@Boa_Omega I'll have to try a mozza burger, traitor that I am.
@@Boa_Omegathe mozza burger is literally the only burger I get. I love it so much
Teen burger, 😋
A&W is pretty popular in Canada, probably around the same amount of restaurants as burger King. And it's food is way better than McDonald's and BK. For fast food it's pretty solid.
Edit: there 3x as many A&W locations as there are Burger King.
Something special about this place is they don't put ice in their drinks because it waters down the pop. They make their machines colder than other restaurants for this reason.
The glass mugs also were kept in a 0 degree C fridge, so it develops like a icy touch that kept the drink super cold.
Fun fact: A&W does not put ice in their pop/soft drinks. It is chilled enough to not need it. It is funny when people in the drive through for no ice. 😅
My aunt loves root beer and she doesn't go to A&w because of this reason lol . I'm the same way though I like ice in my drink It's never cold enough for me
The reason isn't because it's chilled enough. It's because they claim their root beer is perfectly balanced and water from the ice would ruin the taste. The glass mugs are pre-chilled, so if you eat in restaurant (definitely the better option) you glass IS the ice cube.
@@BenAnkenmann I used to work at A&W and was told that the pop machines are kept at a very low temperature so ice was not necessary. If it was a water to drink issue, then why are they now selling "Frozen Root Beer"? They don't put straight root beer in a slushie machine, they do add a small amount of water to the machine.
@@paulegger3830 frozen root beer is a different drink, more like a slushie really. I'm sure the pop comes cold out of the machine, but it's the frozen mugs that keep it cold. If you get a root beer to go from a&w it's only cold for a few minutes.
Story...In the late 60's, in Northern BC, my older sister, ( high school,) got a job at our A&W. The uniform was a white blouse, short brown jacket and brown pants with an orange stripe down the side of the leg. A kind of cadet style hat. Hair in a bun.
If you're old 😅 you will remember the drive-in! You parked your car, on either side ⁸facing a long middle sidewalk and turned your headlights on. (no indoor seating) The car-hop would come and take your order. She, (no boys allowed) would bring your food on a tray and hook it on your car window. When you were done, you turned your headlights back on and she would come and get the tray.
Anyway, they wanted the girls to wear a girdle! ...A tight fitting garment you wore under tight pants... The feminist movement took care of all that!.😅
There was one in Victoria until nearly 1980
My husband STILL talks about the whistle dogs he used to get at the drive in A&W!
Our A&W still has the concrete strip. They removed the veranda and use it as a loop for the drive thru. I was born in 1973 and remember going to this drive in so it had to be around until at least the 80s. Also I thought I remembered roller skates, might have that confused with a movie.
The carhops at the drive ins also wore roller skates, also the teen burger is my favourite , in rural more a&w than Mac Donald’s
I remember the A&Ws having electronic intercom stations in the parking stalls for ordering. And flashers to indicate you were ready to leave and wanted your tray picked up.
you are right that drinking A&W out of a frosted mug is a spiritual experience. They famously do not use ice in their pop (they literally wont give you ice ever), but the root beer starts to freeze a little bit around the edge of the mug so when you take a sip you get 95% root beer and 5% frozen root beer chips. only for the first few minutes until the glass warms up slightly. But yes it is a heavenly experience and its ALWAYS worth it to eat inside just to get the frozen mug.
I think it was last summer they started offering frozen root beer. Aka root beer slushy. Great for the summer keeping it colder for longer
Frozen mugs are THE reason to go to A&W. Plus the food is heads and tails better than any other burger place, esp the golden arches.
At my town's A&W they frost the mugs AND give ice if you want. You can get some very frigid root beer in the sweltering summer here. It's glorious.
If you get the root beer as a fountain drink, there is the ice option...
Try carrying the tray with those mugs. Super heavy. I’ve dropped some in my time.
Growing up, we used to have franchises that were drive-in where they came to your car window wearing rollerskates. I miss those days!
A & W is very popular here in Canada. They used to be drive-ins, but have now become dine-in restaurants.
The difference with A&W is that it is privately owned. It doesn't have the typical single-minded obsession with share prices that most other chains have. It can invest in ingredient quality, ethical behaviour and improved client satisfaction beyond what would be immediatly economically optimal.
This is why life in the 60s-70s-80s was way better. Business wasn't dominated by greedy and short-sighted corporations.
@@noseboop4354 no instead they were owned exclusively by greedy shortsighted individuals.
A&W is indeed listed on the TSX as A&W Royalty Fund.
I grew up in New York state, and A&W was just like this. It had car window service. The server used to wear roller skates came to your car, took your order, and brought it to your car.
The US still has A&W chains as far as I know, they just have less locations than Canada does, and are probably concentrated in the North East if I had to guess
@@havenless3551 There are at least a couple in Washington State. Definitely one in Bellingham. The menu is very different than Canadian ones though!
awwww roller skates are so cute, such a retro thing
@paddington1670 yup I'm that old😉
We also used to have the drive in restaurant where they bring your food to your car while you’re parked. We would all sit as a family in the car eating our yummy burgers. Then my dad would drive us home to our small town. Great memories at A&W. 😊
The onion rings are what it's all about. They're handmade and seasoned with the same seasoning they use on their burger patties. I usually go for a Teen Burger combo with onion rings and a root beer, but if I'm ambitious I'll do the Cheddar Bacon Uncle Burger instead. They also have the best breakfast out of all of the fast food chains we have, including McDonald's. There is an A&W chain in the US, but it's not doing nearly as well as the Canadian version. Their menu is completely different. There are more Canadian restaurants than American ones despite 1/9 of the population. And they're expanding rapidly. A lot of their locations are now shared with Petro-Canada gas stations, with a drive-thru and everything.
I still have the baby mug we got when we were kids....55yrs ago🎉🎉
I have one too!
I still have a baby mug too. I'm in my late 40s
My 2 brothers and I learned to drink from that mug...nice and sturdy
Me too LOL..I'm 61:)
You wanted to know how common A & W is in Canada... so I looked it up. Here's the number of locations of a number of chains in Canada (from most to least):
3,584 Tim Horton's
2,874 Subway
1,448 Starbucks
1,362 McDonald's
1,060 A & W
709 Dairy Queen
653 KFC
604 Domino's Pizza
595 7-Eleven
584 Pizza Hut
424 Wendy's
368 Burger King
291 Harvey's
In the U.S., there are 506 A & W restaurants still operational.
Best meal: Teen burger, onion rings, root beer. After obtaining, open the burger, add a couple onion rings to said burger, close burger, eat. This only works with place that have really good onion rings, so your mileage may vary.
Also, the mascot is a bear.
Have a nice day!
ya the onions rings are kinda hit and miss... and they want like 6 bucks for them now >.
@@kingjames4886
My local A&W is pretty consistently good. Guess I'm just lucky! :P Sorry to hear you're in one of the places where that's not the case.
I also always choose this combo!
For a chain restaurant they have the best onion rings.
@@kimc555 have you tried harvey's rings? they used to be pretty good.
My dad worked for A&W in the 60’s in Oakville, Ontario. He was a go between from the kitchen to the servers who would deliver the food to car, while wearing roller skates.
While we don’t have all that anymore A&W is quite good. And the mascot is “the root bear 😊”
A&W had a lot of commercials, I remember them from my childhood up till the later parts of the 2010s.
My grandparents frequented that exact restaurant when my father was young!
A&W started as root beer stands in the US, and later expanded into burgers, developing into the Burger Family, which started becoming popular as drive-in locations. In the 80s, as increasingly being sidelined by the bigger guys, those Canadian standalone sites were sold for redevelopment and the chain moved into food courts of shopping malls. They typically had exclusivity there as the burger option, becoming a go to for mall rats and the like.
Both the American and Canadian sides of the company started selling the root beer outside of their restaurants through supermarkets, corner stores, most wherever. The American parent operation got an offer from Unilever for the Canadian business, during which time they turned back to people’s nostalgia, complete with 50’s style new standalone restaurants, and there they changed the experience substantially. Unilever didn’t so much “run” it as the franchise owners came up with ideas, leading to they and the Canadian management buying the organisation. Bringing back the ice chilled mugs, using actual metal forks for poutine in the standalone sites, ensuring ethical treatment of their food sources and such and advertising that, while keeping prices competitive.
The mugs and the like aren’t for takeout or take home as souvenirs, although I remember seeing one location that did sell them at one point. Some locations actually have equipment to make root beer onsite. The mascot is the A&W Root Bear - “Rooty”. Canadians of a certain age remember him becoming a celebrity when the sale of bottled A&W Root Beer in stores started, completely with a tuba based jolly walking theme song, which you can find on UA-cam, and it plays in the back of our minds as we enjoy a meal there. The current commercials feature an actor as the typical A&W location manager, proud of the product and happy to make the customers happy.
The Teen Burger is their Big Mac/Whopper equivalent, with the extra fixings. The various others tend to focus on different amounts of meat between the buns. As a rule A&W’s menu and burgers are tuned to Canadian tastes much more than McDonald’s or Burger King.
so here's a fun fact I'm not seeing a lot of people talk about. I don't know if this is just a Calgary thing, but A&W is also very closely tied to the vintage car scene. when passing by an A&W, it's very common to see people parking their old mustangs, Chevys, and sometimes those old box cars idk the name of, and just having impromptu car shows.
Also, my go too at A&W definitely has to be either a teen burger or chubby chicken with extra salted fries and a root beer
Not a Calgary thing, at all. One car club in Saskatoon has a cruise in every other Saturday at our 8th Street A & W, starting mid May. Everyone is invited. The restaurant's lot and the lot beside, can be packed with old cars. Fun time.
Cruise nights! My A&W in Ontario did it every Tuesday from May to October. Loved seeing folks bring out thier classic cars, it livened up an otherwise boring mid-week shift.
Oh man I used to love teen burgers. And whistledogs. I've been vegetarian for almost 20 years now, and A&W was pretty much the first place in Canada where I could get a proper vegetarian burger that tasted like an actual burger and wasn't made of black beans. When A&W released their beyond meat burger it was like mana from heaven for me. I buy them regularly still. I have even tried to replicate their beyond meat cheeseburger at home but it's just not the same.
@@K1ddkanuckMy daughter misses the old veggies burgers. She is vegetarian and doesn't like the taste of meat. And so doesn't like beyond meat. I wish they would bring that their old veggie burgers as an option.
Same here in Georgetown, Ontario. Every Thursday evening, the A & W parking lot is filled with vintage cars, such as Camero's, Mustangs, Nova's, Corvettes, etc.
I always assumed that the restaurant came first and the root beer was so popular the started selling it on the side
When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, we used to go to A&W and it was not a sit-in restaurant at the time. It had parking spaces under a canopy where we could order right from the car. The waitresses would bring our food right to our car on a tray that would hook onto the car window on the driver's side. They even served the root beer in a cold frosted mug. The menu has expanded since those days, and the restaurant is dine-in now-a-days (no more parking and ordering from the car). I enjoy a mama burger or a teen burger from time to time these days, and I mostly just go through the drive-through.
Frosted mugs even. I’ve been following your channel and love that you’re educating your fellow Americans about us. We are basically the same people with some idiosyncrasies to make each other a little different. The main thing is we are brothers and despite our differences we are more the same than we are different.
The sweet potatoe fries comes with the chipotle mayonnaise and together they're very good! One of my fav at A&W
My dad used to work at A&W before my parents split so I have a lot of nostalgia for it. But as far as food, their onion rings are extraordinary imo.
Hell yeah they are!!🤤🤤
'Can' you keep the mug? 'Can you' is an interesting choice of words...
In my experience, you can keep anything if you're clever enough. 😉
Right!? Everyone I know has at least one at home. 😂 I doubt a single person bought them. 🤷🏼♀️
Technically, you're SUPPOSED to buy the mugs. However, what people are supposed to do and what they actually do isn't always the same thing.
Playing semantic games in public forums should be verboten.
Can you vs may you. No you may not keep what you never paid for
Canada has banned single use plastics, so most restaurants have paper straws now 😢
There are a few that have found biodegradable "plastic" straws, and those are so nice to have.
@@ComeUndun. stocked up on plastic straws before the ban, got hundreds of them, I hate paper
That is not true. 100% not true.
@@breezybre2670 which part?
"The Regulations prohibit the manufacture, import and sale of single-use plastic checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware made from or containing problematic plastics, ring carriers, stir sticks, and straws." - from our government website. A quick Google search of "Canada single use plastic ban" will give you a lot of sources on this.
@@breezybre2670 there are no plastic straws in restaurants or fast food in Canada, tell me where there are plastic straws
@@Sally-ih6ls We have them here in Edmonton. 90% don't but we have them at the local restaurants; not the big chains. Perhaps I interpet the sp called ban differently as it has been struck down in court and now the government is appealing it. So that is very much up in the air. How crazy is it that hey even wnat to ban single use straws made of biodegradable material? I think we need to know what they are putting in these paper straws since clearly they are dissolving in our drinks!
Unilever sold its stores to a franchisees' group in 1995, so it is now an independent Canadian company.
Which one you know !?
@@commenceenavoirmarre A & W Food Services of Canada, Inc.
@@johnfitzgerald7618 Thanks !
When I was young A&W was a 50 style of drive in ( not a drive through) were servers would come to your car and hook the tray to your window. The girls served you wearing rollerstakes just like the movies. Brandon, Manitoba was the last A&W drive in North America which allowed my children had the same experienced I had as a kid!
When I first saw American Graffiti movie in the 70's, I was now living in New Jersey. The drive in place gave me flashbacks to A&W that I grew up with in Montreal.
Happy ending..... I am back in Canada, and again enjoying A&W.
A&W stands for “Amburgers and Wootbeer”
I live in a small city in BC, roughly 10,000 people. We have one McDonald’s, one Dairy Queen, no Burger King and two A&W‘s.
yeah my small town had an A&W for years before a McDonald's showed up. LOVED going there as a kid and sitting on the big stuffed bear in the entrance.
looll Can I steal your joke for my day to day life?
In the 80s, they had an iconic theme song as popular as McDonalds I'm loving it theme, except there were no lyrics, just a solo tuba playing a bouncy fun theme while the bear mascot waddled around around. The tuba player was from the Vancouver symphony.
Bahaha I hadn't heard this joke since my father-in-law used to make it prior to 2006 when he passed. Thank you for this nostalgia moment ❤
Hahaha love it.
Love the chilled mugs, it turns the pop into slush at the top
Probably the best burger joint at this point in time, their burgers aren't all squashed like most burger places, and it tastes very good, their breakfasts are also very good...
I have a young Japanese grandson whose family usually visits me once a year. His first visit anywhere when he arrives is to A&W. He is positive that A&W has the best food (especially hamburgers) in the world.
You certainly missed a few key things about A&W here. The breakfast menu is top tier. They offer bacon and egg breakfasts with your egg cooked however you want it. The eggs are actually real eggs too. They don't come from a carton like McDonalds or come pre-cooked like Burger King. It's real breakfast food.
Yes, there is a baby burger. That is part of the kid's menu. It's essentially a small, plain burger.
My order of choice is a Grandpa burger with 3 slices of cheese, no mayo. I get it with either the poutine or onion rings (depending on my mood), and a root beer of course. Always ask for some root beer suckers when you order. They are free to those who ask.
The onion rings are an iconic part of the A&W lineup. All of the ingredients at A&W come fresh as groceries and are prepped in the morning by the prep cook. This means full heads of lettuce for the burgers which are washed and cut up. Full sized onions which are washed and sliced up. The onion rings are fresh made in the morning by slicing them, making a batter, dipping and coating them, then arranging them on MANY flat trays to be cooked throughout the day. They are officially the best onion rings that you can possibly ever order.
Wen eating in the restaurant, you can get a frosted mug for your drink. They have mug freezers at the counter for this purpose.
Plastic straws were banned in Canada a few years back. I still don't understand why places use paper straws though. Everybody hates paper straws! 711 uses cellulose straws which are exactly like plastic, they just don't melt in your drink or taste bad like the paper straws.
The mugs are in a frosted cooler and can be purchased to have at home where u can store in freezerbto have frosty drinks.
My favourite used to be the Grandma Burger but was discontinued. A prime rib burger with horseradish sauce. Most Canadian fast food places have a poutine offering.
When I was a teen, there was an A&W in Coquitlam, BC that was like a skiing chalet inside with one of those large round fireplaces with a round bench around it as well as booths. Wonderfully cozy & enticing for our youth group. Many hours spent there! Warning: ⚠️ if you get the Root Beer Float… listen to the waitress & don’t poke the bear, I mean ice cream, as it WILL turn into a volcano!🌋
When I was a kid, my dad would take me to the drive-in on Kingsway in Burnaby, BC. Car hops, roller skates, the works! He found out they had a secret menu & once I knew they made tacos… 🌮 that’s all I ordered there. The best tacos I’ve ever had! Miss the tacos 🌮 & my dad. ❤
I had the same fireplace in Winnipeg at the McPhillips location. They tore it down and built a modern one on the same property.
I remember the one in Jasper used to be like that back in the day…
I love A&W and fondly remember going to the Drive-In service as a child. They used to have ‘Baby’ burger’s and ‘Baby’ size root beer in the tiniest of mugs. I still go to A&W to enjoy the best plant based burgers and cold mug root beer.
I still have one of those baby mugs in the kitchen.
Those “baby” mugs can be purchased! I have a couple them. So cute!!!!
The story of A&W is actually pretty interesting, and it really highlights the stark differences between the American and Canadian markets.
As an employee at an a&w, my go to is either the chubby chicken cruncher (extra chubby sauce or mayo) with rings, or i get a poutine but i add a seasoned burger patty broken up on top and grilled onions. Both are so good, especially with a strawberry shake!
Yes, we chill the mugs and offer them to anyone who wants to use in-store instead of paper cups and if they want to, and are at one of the locations that allow it, we let you buy them, though most people just steal them.
We also serve real bacon and eggs for breakfast which is unique for our fast food market and there are off the menu items like the animal burger (a 5 patty grandpa burger) or a Frankenstein burger (a 7+ patty grandpa burger)
It is the main high quality fast food option in Canada and all the burgers have seasoning salt on them
A&W was nicknamed "Arrive and Wait" by my parents, as the original restaurant was the traditional drive-in where you parked your car and STAYED IN IT, while waiting for waitresses to come. When they did, they took your order, and then delivered it on window-mounted trays. I worked at a modern-day one for a full summer, and i'm telling you, it's fantastic. The coolest thing for them in my opinion is the fact that they offer you BACON AND EGG BREAKFASTS in a hurry! These are VERY popular, and VERY delish. A&W has been, and always will be, my favourite fast-food burger joint, cuz it's all that and much more. P.S., those mugs are chilled ina freezer, and are used cold instead of ice. And yes, you can buy them (last time i checked, the price was 12.99 a mug)!
We used to call it Ask & Wait lol
I miss those days, sitting in the back seat of my Dad's Gremlin. And they would hang the tray of food on your car window. No ice and the frosted glass mugs are the only way I enjoy a root beer.
Worked as a gas pump jockey in the sixties across from an A&W drive in and lived on Momma Cheese burgers. Later in the early eighties I would take my wife and son to the same place in my 1965 Corvette convertible. Great memories. A&W drive inns were hot rod central in the muscle car years. Sad to see the drive inns go but the teenburger is still the best burger sold.
@@rooky55 The A&W in my hometown of Regina Saskatchewan still has car rallies to honour those memories. They call them "Cruisin the Dub" days, and they are AWESOME to attend
@@haydendegrow945 here in Calgary, AB they call it the Show & Shine and they still have them at least 1 Saturday a month i think
My first job as a kid was at A&W in our local mall in the 80's. Not only do you get your root beer in a frosted glass but you can get a root beer float with vanilla ice cream. No,you don't get to keep the mug but you can buy one. The food is great!
The mug are refrigirated. It's to replace ice cubes so that your drinks don't get diluted. They only hand them to those who eat inside the restorant. Then you return it to a place where the employes can grad them to wash them the good old fassion way. They also have baskets for the fries, plates, forks, and butter knives from the breakfast menu. Also, if you want to take a mug back home. You can, at a price of about 20$. Price may vary.
As for the bugger menu, they also have 'Beyond Meat Bugger' which is a vegin bugger.
I used to work at A&W and my coworkers used to call the “Cheddar bacon uncle burger” the “Better shaken buncle hurger.” My go to order is the Mozza Burger with either onion rings or sweet potato fries and chipotle mayo with iced tea. All the onion rings are made fresh in the restaurant, from slicing the onion to seasoning and cooking ❤
Onion rings with chipotle mayo sounds so good. I always want to try the onion rings but I tried them years ago and they were too salty so I'm scared they're still that way
One time I went to A&W and I ordered a double cheeseburger and I kinda got scolded by the cashier and was told “it’s called the papa!” It was hilarious. A&W is awesome
I accidentally tried to order a creepy uncle burger.
You could have ended up with a double mozza, gotta be specific :P
A&W is one of my favourites !
Best onion rings you can find and the frosty root beer mug is iconic
My Favourite fast food burger is the A&W Mozza Burger. The best!! Their onion rings are amazing. They are everywhere and often in gas stations in small towns. Very popular
My favourite too! I didn't see it on the menu in the video, so I'll describe it - it's basically the same as the teen burger, but with mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar and they change the sauce to a thousand islands dressing.
A&W is every where in Canada. From full serve restaurant to kiosks, to gas stations. Good quality ingredients and thus not the cheapest fast food spot. Very good though, I recommend trying it. Their onion rings are killer.
damn right about the onion rings!
With the recent mcdonalds price hike the dub is one of the cheaper options. My order at dub is 18 at mcdonalds its 25
@@YukonWilleh crazy isn't it, i remember going to wendy's back in the day, burger fries and a drink, 4.25 all in
My favorite meal is the Teen burger, fries and a Rootbeer in a chilled mug. Every Canadian knows the A&W theme song.
A&w is still a.restaurant in the US theres like 500 or so. It all started in the US. Canada and US are now seperate entities but they weren't always. The great rootbear was the mascot for both.
I live in Las Vegas we had some but it closed down the next closest is 30 miles away. It doesn’t have all the extra stuff the Canadian one has. It would just be stereotypical American food like hamburgers, French fries and root beer.
@@brandonneumann5294 ya i don't know too much about American A&W but i know a LOT about Canadian A&W as i have worked for them for a decade.
@@unknownruby it just has the American food like hot dogs and hamburgers. It doesn’t have poutine and breakfast stuff and whatever Canadian stuff was added to appeal to the Canadian palette.
@@brandonneumann5294 i don't understand how breakfast is more canadian than American lol but ok. Now poutine i get but basically every fast food chain has it in Canada because it's a super easy upsell that sells itself. We actually discontinued the hotdogs and only bring them back occassionally and then they sell like hotcakes.
@@unknownruby All that chubby chicken and maple syrup with moose meat or whatever y’all have over there we don’t have. It’s strictly American food like I said. I don’t know the full Canadian menu.
The frozen glass mug is a thing but they're slowly phasing it out, probably because it cost them money to operate. It was unreal, the Root Beer would slightly freeze on the side, it was soooo cold and crisp. A spiritual experience like you said!
It's still a thing at my A&W, I hope they keep it around.
The places where they’re being phased out are mainly locations in food courts inside malls. The places that still have them are generally called “A&W Restaurant” and not just “A&W” like the ones inside food courts as you’ll notice on the storefront signage.
A&W was huge in the States when car hops (where the staff would bring your order to your car) was the place to hang the thing
All-Canadian breakfast is pretty fly, eggs ,sausage, bacon, tomato, toast, with orange juice
Pretty inexpensive as well
It's so good! Cheaper, better, and faster than what you'd get at other local restaurants here
I'm 65 years old, back in the day, when you went to an A&W, it was not an eat-in restaurant rather, you drove up and put your headlight on to indicate you wanted to order or needed something, and the person would come up to you on roller-skates and take your order. When you receive your meal, it is brought to you on a tray designed to hang on your window. Today, my favourite meal is a Root beer, teen burger and onion rings or sweet potato fries. They also have their own spice that you can buy in the restaurant.
I do not eat at mcd's, if I want a burger, it is always A&W. Like their root beers, they would come in a frosty mug in the summer
Now I've got their commercial song stuck in my head.
"Let's all go to A&W
Food's more fun at A&W
Get a mug of root beer or maybe two or three
Pick the perfect size from the Burger Family"
Great reminder! Thank you!
The mug is kept in a freezer so they never have to put ice in the mug and the soda doesn't get diluted! A&W also has the best onion rings!! A&W is my favourite fast food burger place
Good Video! The Kraft table spreads are jams and such in single servings.
Sweet potato fries, a teen burger and of course a frosty mug of A&W rootbeer. I only have to drive 67 km to get to the closes A&W to me.
I feel your pain, the nearest one to me is 110 km.
I have traveled across Canada a few times and it's amazing to see A&W in so many places, but that traveling has also opened my eyes to just how HUGE our country is. Sorry you are so far from your Teen Burgers, it's just 15 k for me lol
@@joannefletcher1586 The distance wouldn't be bad but my car has issues so I only get out of town a couple of times a year when I can bum a ride. In truth, I haven't had a chance to stop at an A&W in the past few years.
They don't do ice that's why they freeze the mug, you don't get to keep it unless you steal it.
Or buy one
i hate ice in drinks
Should we tell him about Harvey’s or keep it to ourselves?
I think he should do Harvey's next
He's already looked into Harvey's.
the meat is sooo good at that place. better that A&W's dry and salty meat. (even tho I like A&W)
Will anyone have explained about Kraft Spreads?
I already have and am waiting. Someone needs to video a store tour for him, or a road trip to Southwestern Ontario.
Back in the 60s a&w was a drive-in with car hops. And the rootbeer mugs came in mama, papa and baby sizes. And you could pay a little extra to keep the mugs. I still have one of the baby mugs.
I must say, I always keep four A&W glass mug in my freezer. Any beverage taste amazing in a frosted glass mug.
I have a mug.
How did I get out of the habit of putting it in the freezer?
I remember the commercial with the A&W root bear when I was a kid back in the 80’s. I can also remember going to the drive up A&W near my house. I would not say that A&W is as common as McDonalds (literally everywhere, even in Walmart), but they are as common as Burger King, KFC, or Wendys. We have an A&W about 5 min away.
I used to be a huge fan of A & W and my favourite burger was the teen burger the one time of the year I get A & W is when they are doing their burgers to beat MS
Yeah them and Harvey's are my favorite, 5 guys isn't worth the hype.
The brew bar is a new addition in recent years, but as others have mentioned the frozen mugs are kept there, and you can get a regular paper fast food cup, or by purchase, get yourself one of the different sized mugs, why go for a small mug I would never know, but the large mug is way to go.
I am commenting at the ten minute mark, so Ice Cream Floats are another A&W staple… *Must Have!!* if you’re trying their food for the first time.
My favourite is the Double Buddy burger, fried onions, add bacon and cheese. Get a pair of them~.
Also!! The chicken tenders if they are the same are called “Love me Tenders” in the box they come to the restaurant in.
My first part time job in gr9 was A&W.
I miss the whistle dog and chubby chicken meals
takes them forever to make the chubby chicken though. i remember them running me through the drive through to the parking lot and they would bring it out and it took them eons. I was wondering if they forgot about me
Wow!... I forgot about the Whistle Dog.
Split lengthwise and cooked on the grill. With mustard and relish, it was my favourite as a kid. Mmmmmmmmm....😋🌭
They always make me a whistle dog when I ask. If they have the ingredients they’ll make it for you.
A&W chicken was far better than KFC, it was my absolute fav from any A&W food. Was so sad when they discontinued it, as Im not a big beef fan, I seldome go there now. The chicken strips dont taste the same as the chicken did.
I think you need a trip to the optometrist since the small mascot picture doesn't look anything like a beaver..lol!
It's not a beaver ~ it's a BEAR - the Great Root Bear! Cute, eh?
He’s a typical, average American! Dude doesn’t know what a beaver looks like!
You can buy the mug, but if you don't buy it, you have to leave it at the restaurant when you're done. If you get take out, the pop comes in a disposable cup.
A&W Root Beer is sold in most supermarkets and convenience stores. Some stores also carry A&W Cream Soda.
Plastic straws have been banned in Canada, so restaurants provide paper straws with cold drinks nowadays.
My favourite item is the Mozza Burger which has Mozzarella cheese, bacon, and a special sauce.
Out on the Island we don't get the Cream Soda anymore.. For a time it was the only Diet Creamsoda we could get.... I go with Zivia now... but I still miss the Old A&W stuff😀
I love when they do the one with the white cheeze and mushtooms
The thumbnail made my mouth water.... nicely done, Tyler.
You can in fact buy your own A&W mug. There are still A&W restaurants in the US. They are headquartered in Lexington Kentucky and have 900+ locations as per the US A&W wikipedia page. My favourite order is a Chuby Chicken Burger with onion rings and either root beer or a milk shake.
Only about 600 of those 900+ locations are in the U.S. The rest are in other countries.
Didn’t they sell most of their restaurants to Wendy’s when it first started? Might be confusing it with another chain.
"Let's all go to A&W! Get in the car! Come as you are... to A&W!" -advertisement jingle.
At first I was kind of laughing at how surprised you were. But when you made the Pepsi analogy I can defiantly see why you're so surprised.
To answer your questions:
When you eat in at A&W they give you your drink in a chilled mug, if you eat out or go through the drive thru, they give you a traditional paper cup. And no, you don't keep the mug, you leave it near the garbage with your tray when you leave. The chilled mug makes their rootbear taste much better. The foam freezes and is almost like a rootbeer slushy.
Paper straws are becoming more and more common in Canada, so much so it's more common to get a paper straw then a plastic one. Mcdonalds, Wendys, etc. also only have paper straws in Canada. They don't really fall apart but they do become soggy if you don't finish your drink in a couple hours.
Poutine is available at almost every fast food restaurant in Canada
Pepsico actually owned the American chain at one point, until they spun off their restaurant brands (A&W, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Long John Silver) into Yum Brands. A&W and Long John Silver eventually left Yum Brands.
5:18 I'd say at least half, if not more, of the A&Ws in Canada are tiny in-stores and a drive-thru attached to a gas station, usually open to the convenience store side. It's quite convenient.
Tyler, as a Canadian, living in Connecticut, who spends 5 months in Prince Edward Island I really like your videos. I am 73 when I grew up A&W was a popular Restaurant where I lived in Michigan as a child. The rootbeer was always great the restaurants had these large wooden barrels that had a tap on them to serve the rootbeer. They always had frosted mugs even small kid-sized mugs. The restaurants were drive-ins with waitresses who clipped a tray to a partially rolled-down driver's window. You just drove in, and the waitress would come to your car take the order, and deliver the food. This was before McDonald's was taken over by Ray Krock and transformed into the McDonald's restaurants you see today. The food was good, but today's Canadian A&W is superior. A&W in Canada emphasizes wholesome food with no hormones eggs, chicken and beef fed without hormones, real sugar in the rootbeer. It is the best rootbeer. I also worked at McDonald's in 1966 all we had were the single burgers or double burgers with or without cheese, the newly introduced fillet of fish, and one size of fries from fresh potatoes. Crew members would arrive at 7:00 and spend 3 hours getting 100-200lbs of potatoes ready for the day. The best fries you will ever have. By the way there as still 506 A&W restaurants in the US many in California. Last time I was in one in the US I was extremely disappointed.
The last time I was at McDonalds I was really disappointed. KFC is discussing with grease drippings from the chicken.
PEI Charlottetown had the car hop service in 1970-80s awesome
Icy mugs!! Not just mugs !!
A & W has better quality than most other fast burger places. Crow! I was a car hop in the '70s for A&W.
A&W serve great spicy chicken at a reasonable price. Many years ago, they had a product called Chubby Chicken. It was really tasty, but, for some reason, disappeared. This was when it was a mostly drive-in business. The mugs of root beer are still served chilled.
They still have the chubby chicken im pretty sure? In my province atleast