A&W's origins date back to when Roy W. Allen opened a walk-up root beer stand in Lodi, California, in 1919. Allen's employee Frank Wright partnered with him and founded the first A&W restaurant in Sacramento, California in 1923.[4] The company name was taken from the surname initials of partners Roy W. Allen and Frank Wright. The company became famous in the United States for its "frosty mugs", where the mug would be kept in the freezer prior to being filled with root beer and served to the cus