What does the name of the family restaurant "A&W" stand for?

The name A&W stands for Roy Allen and Frank Wright. The two entrepreneurs joined forces in the early 1920s, and the restaurant chain took its name from the initials of their surnames: Allen and Wright.

Roy W. Allen had started by selling root beer at a roadside stand in Lodi, California, in 1919. Frank Wright, who worked with Allen, became his business partner in 1922. Together they opened their first A&W drive-in restaurant in Sacramento in 1923, pairing Allen's root beer business with a broader food-service operation.

A&W became especially famous for serving root beer in chilled or “frosty” mugs. The company began franchising in 1925, making it one of the early major American restaurant-franchise businesses. Its menu later expanded to hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, and other classic drive-in foods.

The partnership itself did not last indefinitely: Allen bought Wright's share in 1924. Nevertheless, the A&W name remained, preserving both founders' initials. The ampersand is therefore not a reference to a phrase such as “American and Western”; it joins the surnames Allen and Wright.