XXX Root Beer Drive-ins

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Brian Lutz
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XXX Root Beer Drive-ins

Post by Brian Lutz »

One of the more (historically) interesting restaurants to be found around here is the last remaining XXX Root Beer drive-in found in Issaquah WA (the website can be found here, but note that there's auto-playing music on it.) Apparenlty the chain goes back quite a bit, and was at one point fairly widespread. In fact, in some of my other research I found this page on a touring group of country-western singers known as the Arizona Wranglers who formed when they were all working at an XXX drive-in in Phoenix Arizona in 1929.

The reason that I'm positng about this is because while wandering in a part of the local area I rarely get to the other day (Auburn) I came across Big Daddy's Drive-in (see picture below,) which continues to use the distinctive big-barrel sign of XXX Root Beer. I think there might be at least one other former XXX I've seen somewhere around the area, but I can't be sure where it is. Does anyone know of any other former XXX Root Beers still standing?
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Super S
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Re: XXX Root Beer Drive-ins

Post by Super S »

It was before my time, but Longview had a XXX drive-in many years ago. I have seen old pictures but do not recall the big barrel sign in them. This place was Ferguson's for many years, then had short stints as Jamie's Hamburgers and then Bumpers. When Bumpers vacated, the building and property were sold to Lower Columbia College for a possible culinary arts program building. That idea was abandoned though when LCC decided to build a new fine arts building and, noting the proximity of a McDonald's next to the college campus, LCC and McDonald's did a land swap. LCC tore down the old McDonald's, and McDonald's relocated to the former XXX site, tearing down the original building for a new restaurant.
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