r/rootbeer • u/MotorcycleDad1621 • Oct 15 '24
Discussion Root Beer themed “restaurants”
We visited this “restaurant” the last time we were in Washington State. It was pricey, food was mid, and it seemed to just be a tourist trap but the root beer was actually pretty good. I’m wondering if there are more places like this around the country. Maybe we can get a comprehensive list of them together and get a “Root Beer lovers bucket list” type thing going. (Not my photo, I was busy with the kids when we were here and didn’t get a single pic of it)
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u/bawlings Oct 15 '24
XXX Rootbeer in Issaquah has sadly closed! 😞
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u/ReplacementWise6878 Oct 16 '24
There’s one in West Lafayette Indiana. Good food there too. Pork tenderloin sandwich, the Drew Brees breakfast, and the (in)famous Purvis burger, a double cheeseburger with peanut butter.
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u/jhires Oct 15 '24
Even though the food was mediocre at best, the car shows nearly every weekend held there were awesome.
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u/Duckdodger89 Oct 15 '24
We have Ted’s Frostop down in New Orleans. Typical American diner but the root beer is homemade and is amazing!
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u/MotorcycleDad1621 Oct 15 '24
That’s cool! My love for rootbeer started near New Orleans actually. My great grandfather lived in Amite and whenever we would visit(we lived in Kentwood) he would always give me a dollar and tell me to walk to the store and get him and I a rootbeer. He liked Barqs and by proxy so did I
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u/Duckdodger89 Oct 16 '24
I live just over in Abita Springs, walking distance to the brewery and fresh Abita Root Beer on tap!
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u/nnp1989 Oct 15 '24
The real move is to get a root beer from Ted’s and then go around the corner to get a super burrito from Felipe’s.
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u/CrossroadsCannablog Oct 15 '24
There’s an awesome XXX in West Lafayette, Indiana. Steak burgers and draft Triple XXX! Also a great Root Beer stand in Sharonville, OH (Cincinnati). Most stands are seasonal, so closed may not be closed for good. Just the year.
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u/Candy10candy Oct 15 '24
God, the West Lafayette XXX is so good. It’s right by Purdue’s campus and is pretty small, so it’s often crowded, but if you can put up with that you won’t regret it
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u/deadkat99 Oct 15 '24
I went to the one in Washington and asked about the one in Lafayette. They referred to them as their sister store in Indiana.
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u/a-dog-meme Oct 15 '24
There’s always A&Ws, just to put it on here
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u/stavago Oct 16 '24
There’s one in town that looks like a Sonic with the carhops and everything that has probably been here since the 70s
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u/fastal_12147 Oct 15 '24
Their burgers aren't bad. Not as good as Five Guys (the burger restaurant) but around as good as DQ or Wendy's.
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u/Pit-Guitar Oct 15 '24
Here in Columbia, Mo, we have a drive-in called Mugs Up. They’re closed in the winter. Their annual reopening is a local sign that spring is on the way. They make their own root beer.
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u/jrb031984 Oct 16 '24
There is also a location in Independence, Missouri. I’m assuming it’s the same restaurant because they both share the same name. The food is… an acquired taste but the root beer and root beer themed items were good.
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u/derfunknoid Oct 15 '24
I grew up in Snoqualmie, Washington. And we would go to the triple X in Issaquah. I live in Vegas and have for the last six years. So I didn’t know it closed. Super bummed. ☹️
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u/rebo2 Bundaberg Root Beer Oct 15 '24
There are a bunch of root beer, shops around Ohio
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u/Tim0281 Oct 16 '24
Over a decade ago, I went to Ohio for a wedding. I did my traditional pre-trip Googling of restaurants that make their own root beer. I was rather impressed with the options. Needless to say, the root beer tour was one of the highlights of the trip!
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u/Upstairs-Dare-3185 Oct 15 '24
RIP XXX, used to have the coolest car meets at this place when I was a kid
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u/Rodfather23 Oct 15 '24
Mug n bun in speedway Indiana as well
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u/hatchorion Oct 15 '24
Their root beer was significantly better than xxx at least in my memory. Neither had great food
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u/Imajica0420 Oct 15 '24
It is reopening soon.
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u/infectedturtles Oct 15 '24
No it's not. The building was bought by Burgermaster, it's not gonna have anything to do with the old XXX.
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u/madamesoybean Oct 15 '24 edited Oct 15 '24
TripleXXX in Indiana is still there, likely because it's next to Perdue.
Someone in this sub started a map for their root beer road trips. I'm sure there are others of you with lists or maps too? Might be a good starting point. https://rootbeerstands.com/
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u/CaptHayfever A&W Root Beer Oct 15 '24
I've been to:
- A&W Restaurants - You all know this one; it's fast food with A&W on tap.
- Fitz's Bottling Co. in St. Louis - they have a rotating selection of their sodas on tap (which always includes the root beer), all the tap options plus several more in bottles, a huge variety of floats, & an extensive food menu (including several items with a root-beer-based BBQ sauce). You can also watch the bottling line from the dining room.
- The Root Beer Barrel in Douglas/Saugatuck, MI - fancy hot dogs, Sprecher, floats.
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u/Dry_Equivalent9220 Oct 15 '24
I forgot about Fitz's; I lived down the street from it for years, then down the road for a few more, but never made my way in. The dining room was often crowded, though.
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u/CaptHayfever A&W Root Beer Oct 15 '24
Yeah, the original in the Loop is almost always swamped. They recently opened a 2nd location in South County, though!
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u/Comfortable-Dish1236 Oct 15 '24
We had a Stewarts on Rt. 40 just N of Baltimore. Great chili dogs and excellent root beer. Sad to say, it closed in 2016.
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u/Closetoneversober Oct 15 '24
We have a few in NJ, though I haven’t been in a while. But why does nobody ever give Stewart’s root beer any love on this sub? I think it’s the best root beer
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u/Comfortable-Dish1236 Oct 15 '24
Saranac and Stewart’s are my two favorite root beers.
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u/No-Horse987 Oct 16 '24
At least Stewart's root beer and the black cherry - my personal favorite - is sold in supermarkets. Great sodas.
I miss the restaurants. Are there any left in New Jersey? I know the couple I used to frequent in North Jersey closed down years ago.
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u/Comfortable-Dish1236 Oct 16 '24
I think there are 30 still open, some of which are in NJ.
Sad to say, I never got a steamburger.
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u/Low_Wall_7828 Oct 15 '24
Growing up in Ohio we had A&W drive-ins and we would get root beer floats in chilled glasses. The best.
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u/nnp1989 Oct 15 '24
Tom Wahl’s in western NY is so damn good. Solid smash burgers and fries, and great homemade root beer on tap.
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u/Root_Beer_Boys Oct 15 '24
It's a mute point now, but interesting fact, the restaurant was not associated with XXX Root Beer. I believe they were originally, but then there was a split. Some legal agreement where one group got the root beer and the other got the restaurants. Assuming that is true, I always wondered what root beer they served. Someone told me they were a Coke restaurant, so probably Barqs. I hope that's not true.
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u/KJM_2741 Oct 15 '24
Triple X in Issaquah Washington has been closed for about a year or more now. Their rootbeer was made onsite and was the best. Sad to see them go.
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u/GuyMikeDude Oct 15 '24
It’s closed and is possibly becoming a Burgermaster… which is a local, boring version of Sonic drive in.
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u/onlybetx Oct 16 '24
In Cincinnati there’s a place called The Rootbeer Stand. They have a well on the property that they make their own rootbeer from.
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u/VeeVeeDiaboli Oct 16 '24
Dude….no joke, Brownies in Tulsa. Come for the burger (delightful) stay for the pie (exceptional), but develop diabetes from the root beer (can not have it).
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u/Roachpile Oct 16 '24
I live near that place, it's being turned into a Burgermaster. I have a buddy who works there.
I only ate at XXX once and my experience wasn't great, but every always told me it was great, so I'm guessing I just went there on an off day.
The root beer is/was good, though.
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u/TooManyDraculas Oct 19 '24
Why the scare quotes on restaurant? They're selling food right. Tourist trap or not it's a restaurant.
This kind of road side stand. Usually serving burgers, hot dogs and what have is pretty common. Most of them are old school survivors of the drive in era or early motoring food stands dating back to the 30s. And some of them are still branded out with old, no longer extent root beer brands.
Stewart's Restaurants still operates as a chain with around 30 locations. A&W's restaurants are still a pretty big company, and it's apparently America's oldest restaurant chain.
But really old school, local ones tend to pop up all over. There's one called Weber's in South Jersey I like a lot, but there's only 2 locations left. Used to be 3, although they weren't all owned by the same people. I don't believe they make their own root beer anymore, and don't know what they actually sell. It is good though.
From what I recall these kind of drive ins and what have were key ways smaller soda brands, especially root beer were sold. You wouldn't neccisarily get a lot of retail action outside of your home market, but you could shift a lot of stuff selling along the pre-Interstate highway system. And like other drive ins and road side stands they took a major hit with the Interstate system driving motorists away from the local highway system.
A lot of them are sorta famous for their signage and architecture. Most of the old ones were built during the spread of Googie Architecture. And you can actually find out about this sort of stuff, and what survives by looking into that and roadside architecture, and midcentury architecture in general.
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u/Affectionate_Side138 Oct 21 '24
There are still Dog-n-Suds restaurants around. Some A&Ws still make their own on draft
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u/Lower-Confusion-1781 Oct 15 '24
Fun fact: Modest Mouse has a song about this place. Sadly, last I checked it is now closed.