Root beer is one of my life-long fascinations. It’s uniquely American, it’s botanical, it has deep ties to California, and you drop in a scoop of vanilla ice cream and something magical, almost alchemical, happens.

I stumbled across the 90th anniversary celebration of A&W in Lodi, CA, in 2009 and kept the idea in the back of my head as a story to pitch when the centennial rolled around. It’s probably the longest I have ever sat on a pitch idea, and it worked out. The San Francisco Chronicle had recently done away with their travel section, but they were thankfully still game to send me to Lodi on a root beer reconnaissance mission.

Read more here on the 100-year history of A&W: SF Chronicle gift link