Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Lorain A&W Root Beer Ad – May 26, 1964

One of my memories of Vermilion from when I was a kid was that my parents took us a few times to the A&W Root Beer stand there on U.S. Route 6. (It was located where Wendy’s is now.)

I first wrote about the Vermilion A&W here.

What’s strange is that Lorain had its own A&W Root Beer stand on Route 6 too, a few miles to the east of the Vermilion one. It was located at West Erie Avenue and Madison.

Here’s an ad for that Lorain stand, which ran in the Journal on May 26, 1964.

I don’t remember the Lorain A&W at all. It could be because Dad seemed to avoid that stretch of West Erie entirely, always using the W. 21st Street shortcut to save time whenever we were going west of Lorain.

Does anyone remember the Lorain A&W?

The Vermilion one is well-remembered, and the subject of a recent series of reminisces on the “You know you’re from Vermilion if....” Facebook page.

By the way, I happened to be in Windsor, Ontario a few days ago and passed an A&W Restaurant. The A&W operations in Canada are completely separate from that of the company based in the United States. (Read about the very successful Canuck version of A&W here.)

That got me to wondering: are there any A&Ws still in Ohio?

The corporate website answered my question. There are restaurants in Marion, Columbus, Whitehall and Zanesville. (I remember there was one north of campus on High Street when I was down at Ohio State in the late 70s. There was also one in Ashland, which I wrote about here.)

Click here to visit the A&W website to learn about the history of the chain, which is celebrating its 100th Anniversary in 2019.

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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 29, 2019 at 7:47 AM

    I have been searching for a good picture of the West Erie A&W for ages to no avail.In the evenings that was one of our favorite hang outs in the 60s.

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  2. Mike KozlowskiMay 29, 2019 at 4:31 PM

    ...I remember the A&W on West Erie, but we never went there - we always went to the Dog and Suds. :)

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  3. JayMay 30, 2019 at 7:40 AM

    There are only two left in Ohio. Zainesville and Columbus. There used to be one in Midway Mall when the food court was added in 1990. It didn’t last too long bc I think it became Arby’s not too long after.

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  4. Jeff RashMay 30, 2019 at 8:44 PM

    Hello Dan...

    It has been a while since I have read your blog...nice to get back on here.

    I loved the Vermilion AW Root Beer Stand. In fact...AW Root Beer is still the only "pop" that I drink!

    Jeff Rash

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  5. Ron RemaklusAugust 21, 2020 at 6:03 PM

    We were at the Lorain A&W almost every night in out teens.

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  6. Perry CartwrightAugust 18, 2021 at 3:25 PM

    We went to the A&W on West Erie all the time. My grandparents lived just down the street at 2713 W. Erie. Great root beer floats. They let us get a float and a chili dog. At one time a bank was built on the site. I worked for my uncle when it was demolished. He saved nothing.

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