A & W

A&W Restaurants is a long-standing American quick-service restaurant brand centered on burgers, chicken, hot dogs, fries, desserts, and its signature draft root beer served in frosted mugs. Many locations operate as freestanding restaurants with drive-thru service, and the brand maintains a mix of sites in small and mid-sized towns, regional trade areas, select urban neighborhoods, and along highway and travel corridors in the United States and abroad.

The company traces its origins to 1919, when Roy W. Allen opened a roadside root beer stand in Lodi, California, serving a proprietary root beer to returning World War I veterans. A few years later, Allen partnered with Frank Wright, creating the A&W name and helping launch one of the earliest franchised restaurant systems in the country. Over the decades, A&W grew from a simple beverage stand into a full quick-service restaurant concept, while its root beer and drive-in heritage remained core to the brand identity.

A major turning point came in 2011, when a group of U.S. A&W franchisees purchased the brand and its domestic operations from Yum! Brands and moved the company’s headquarters to Lexington, Kentucky. Under this ownership, A&W shifted to a franchisee-led model with a renewed focus on disciplined, long-term growth. As of September 2024, A&W operates and franchises more than 900 restaurants worldwide, including roughly 500 in the United States and additional locations in Canada and several Asian markets.

Over the past five years, A&W has concentrated on franchise-driven expansion, particularly in small and mid-sized U.S. markets where the brand already has legacy recognition and room to reintroduce or strengthen its presence. The system has added new freestanding and drive-thru units, pursued conversions of existing restaurant buildings, and opened additional locations in markets where operators see multi-unit potential. The company’s development materials highlight ongoing activity across the Midwest, Southeast, and Mountain West, along with infill in existing trade areas where A&W can deepen its footprint.

For landlords, brokers, and developers, A&W functions as a recognizable, historically rooted quick-service tenant that leans into drive-thru and freestanding formats but can also work in endcaps and in-line conversion scenarios. The franchisee ownership structure and long brand history support a stable operating base, while current expansion efforts reflect a measured but active growth posture. A&W often targets communities where it can be a primary or signature quick-service option, which can help reinforce neighborhood centers, highway-oriented pads, and small-town main retail clusters looking to pair national identity with a familiar, legacy brand.