food
A&W San Rafael: Root Beer Float, No Curly Fries
A&W in San Rafael serves the same root beer float I grew up with in Singapore — but the curly fries never made it here.
There are about 54 A&W locations left in California. The one on Francisco Blvd in San Rafael still has the original pagoda-style roof, a drive-thru, and the frosted glass mug.
Growing up in Singapore, A&W was the first American fast food chain in the country — it opened in 1966, before McDonald’s, before KFC. The most famous location was the Dunearn Road drive-in, which opened in 1970 and ran like a 1950s American car hop. You pulled into a covered stall, a server came to your window, and the root beer floats arrived so cold they sometimes had icicles on the mug. It closed in 1986. The whole chain left Singapore in 2003 and only came back in 2019 at Jewel Changi Airport.
The root beer float in San Rafael is the same as I remember — real cane sugar root beer, vanilla soft serve in a heavy frosted mug. That part survived intact.
What didn’t make it here: the curly fries. Singapore A&W has always served curly fries, and they are the correct fry for this restaurant. California locations serve regular fries. It is a meaningful omission.
The California menu runs on the Papa Burger, Coney Dogs, and hand-breaded chicken strips. Singapore adds the Cream Cheese Chicken Burger — a fried chicken patty with cream cheese, caramelized onions, and onion rings — which exists at only two A&W locations globally: Singapore and Okinawa.
The San Rafael location is worth the detour if you’re already heading into Marin. Order the root beer float.