Thursday, September 24, 2009

The Rootbeer Stand

It's purely coincidental that we hit two historic root beer stands in one summer.
We've driven past the exit sign touting The Rootbeer Stand in Oglesby, Illinois so many times while on our way to other destinations. This time we made a plan to stop.
I believe The Rootbeer Stand was an A&W root beer stand until some time in the 1980s. Henry Moore owned it for 50 years, purchasing it after World War II.
In the parking lot, we were greeted by Woody the Root Beer man, with root beer and burger in hand.
Inside, we took a booth along the left side of the restaurant, and soon placed our order for cheeseburgers, an iced tea for me, root beer for my husband and fries and onion rings. My meal also came with a salad, for which I selected a creamy garlic dressing.
The prices were very reasonable.
The food took a little while to be prepared, but our onion rings came out quickly. My husband was trying to save them for his meal, but once I sampled them I kept having to have more.
They were super crisp through and through, none of those slithery onions slipping out once you bit through the outer crust. They were great alone, but I found them even better with a small dollop of ranch sauce.
The garlic dressing on my salad had nice garlic powder punch, and the burgers were good.
My wavy fries were also nicely prepared, with a distinct crunchy outer shell leading to soft potato goodness tucked inside.
My husband enjoyed the root beer, and I found it to be much more to my liking than most I've tried.
I perused the "flavor burst" ice cream menu many times debating between butter pecan and a cotton candy flavor, but in the end decided to skip dessert.
After lunch, we walked around the site a bit, admiring the drive-in parking complete with curbside menus.

The Rootbeer Stand
225 N Columbia Avenue
Oglesby, IL 61348

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