A&W Restaurants

A&W began in 1919, when Roy Allen opened a root beer stand in Lodi, California, for a parade welcoming soldiers home from the First World War. Frank Wright joined him a few years later, and they combined their initials into the name. It became one of America’s first franchise restaurant chains and the model for the drive-in, where food and frosty mugs of root beer came out to your car.

Burgers arrived later, and A&W marketed them as a family: the Papa, Mama, Teen and Baby Burgers, introduced in 1963. Today A&W is the only major US fast-food chain owned entirely by its own franchisees, and the root beer is still made fresh in the restaurants.

Several hundred restaurants, owned entirely by the franchisees who run them.