The wait is almost over for those craving A&W root beer in Arnold.
An A&W Restaurant is expected to open in mid-April or early-May at 3996 Jeffco Blvd. The restaurant will be near the corner of Jeffco Boulevard and Telegraph Road where a McDonald’s restaurant and a BP gas station used to operate.
Jim Sill, who owns several A&W and Long John Silver’s restaurants with his partner Jim Sprick, said the two secured all the necessary permits for the restaurant on Feb. 10.
Sill also said he expects construction to start during the last week of February.
“Everything is on order, and they will start trickling in,” Sill said of construction materials and kitchen and restaurant supplies. “We will work on the interior of the building, which includes tearing out the floor. The outside will not change much. There will be a different paint scheme. We will redo the parking lot. It will begin soon.”
He said the timeline for construction will depend mainly on how quickly kitchen supplies arrive.
“It is like a duck swimming,” he said. “You don’t see anything below the surface and then it all comes at once. It will get going pretty quickly now.”
Sill said he and Sprick, who first announced in July 2021 that the restaurant would be coming to Arnold, are excited to open it.
“There has been a lot of buzz,” Sill said. “We were talking to someone in Oakville, and they knew about it. That surprised me. They said they cross over the bridge (from south St. Louis County) and come down Telegraph (Road). We had another guy tell us that we will be surprised by how much activity we get from all around the area.”
The partners already are familiar with Arnold because they own the Long John Silver’s restaurant at 1275 Jeffco Blvd.
Sill and Sprick also own A&W locations in St. Charles, Florissant, Carbondale, Ill., and in California. The pair also plans to open a location in Belleville, Ill., this year.
Sill said he worked for Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut restaurants for 30 years before starting his partnership with Sprick seven years ago. Sprick worked at Anheuser-Busch for 25 years before entering the restaurant business, Sill said.
The partners expect the Arnold A&W location to follow a nationwide trend for the restaurants and perform well.
“We opened an A&W in St. Charles a couple of years ago, and it is performing above our expectations,” Sill said. “Across the country, whenever anyone opens a new A&W Restaurant, they are exceeding expectations. A&W has had nine years of positive sales growth, especially when you go to legacy towns.”
Years ago there was an A&W Restaurant along Jeffco in the north part of Arnold not too far from Arnold City Park.
Sill said the partners have a 20-year lease for the new Arnold location, and they expect the A&W Restaurant to be around for a long time.
“The brand has been around for over 100 years, and it is kind of what is old is new again,” he said. “There are a lot of places that sell you hamburgers, but there are not a lot of places where you can get fresh-made A&W root beer every day. That is a big tiebreaker for a lot of folks.”
