A&W Restaurants, Inc., this country’s oldest franchise restaurant chain and a pioneer in the drive-in restaurants during the late-Fifties and early Sixties, announced the opening of new state-of-the-art drive-in restaurants in Birmingham, AL and another in Seiverville, TN along Gateway to the Smoky Mountains.

Franchisees for the new operation Birmingham is DLB Restaurants, Inc. and its principals Dave and Cheryl Barber of Birmingham, Denvil and Shirley Barber of Camdenton, MO and Dennis O’Brian and Gail Dickson also of Birmingham. Dave Barber is a veteran of 12 years of operating drive-in restaurants for other quick service restaurant chains.

The franchisee for the A&W Drive-In for Tennessee is DJ Enterprises and is being supervised by Dean Humphries and Steve Boswell, both veteran drive-in operators with another quick service restaurant organization.

The Alabama A&W Drive-In features 28-car stalls with roller-blading car- hops plus two walk-up order windows and nine sit down tables inside the facility. The new drive-in employs eight persons. The new free-standing restaurant was built by Allen Binkley Construction of Birmingham, which has built some 60 drive-ins for other organizations.

The A&W Tennessee Gateway to the Smokies facility is part of an Amoco Gas and Convenience Store operation.

According to Humphries and Boswell, one of the biggest changes in drive- ins is the improvement of operations.

“After the first few weeks of operations, we are averaging 2.5-minutes per order,” Boswell said. “In the old days, you’d have to wait longer.”

Both A&W Drive-Ins feature the A&W All American Menu of hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries, chicken sandwiches, its signature soft drink A&W Draft Root Beer and Root Beer Floats.