A & W Root

Great little old school drive in. Sure, she shows her age, but the people are friendly, the food is solid A&W fare and the root beer can’t be beat. Love this place!

The food was OK. When I went there tonight there was a young man working there who came from behind the counter/​back room where the food was cooked. His butt crack was showing through the window and then he scratched his hind end, under what little pants he had over his crack and we hurried and put the food right back on the tray and zipped around back, where the door was open. THIS BUTT PICKER WAS COOKING FOOD BEFORE HE HAD A CHANCE TO WASH HIS HANDS! I will never go there again. Handed the young lady 21.60 for food that cost 10.00 and she asked if we wanted change. Well of course we did! The service was not that good to give her a tip larger than our food bill. Then the fiasco of the butt picker finalized the dinner. I was gagging all the way home. If I get sick from this…

I need to disclose a couple things first. This location was my FIRST JOB. I was 15 and cooked hot dogs. I am 47 now and STILL come here because it is just a great location, and I love that it is still the old-​style drive in! What else can I say? Great fries, onion rings, hamburgers and hot dogs! And great Root Beer! I don’t care for A&W root beer in the stores, but the stuff at the drive-​in is still good. I do not know if they still do the frosted mugs, but I hope so. (Update — They do)

This place is a dilapidated relic of a bygone era. It’s been here in this location FOREVER (or at lease since the dawn of the automobile) and is somehow still open despite the fact there is never anyone here… except during Woodward Dream Cruise.
I would imagine they do 90% of their business during the month of August and the other 10% scattered across September-​thru-​July.
I am thinking they pull in just enough $$$ from Dream Cruise to pay the rent over the remainder of the year, but not enough $$$ for basic maintenance on top of that. The place is seriously falling apart. The parking lot is full of pot holes (not very attractive considering it is a DRIVE-​up establishment). They never seemed to plow during the winter (my car got stuck in their parking lot multiple times during the winter, once again not cool for a DRIVE-​up). The place just looks dirty, and rusty, and unattractive, and kind of like Time forgot it altogether.
That being said, I’ve never had any problems with the food from this A&W. When you’ve gotta have a Papa Burger and some Cheese Curds, they serve ‘em up just fine here. Root Beer Float? Yup, they do that just fine too.