Root Beer Drive-In
 Wadsworth, Ohio        Date of Visit  05/24/13         No Known Website 

A couple of days ago we were at B-K Root Beer which instantly made me think of this place by comparison. It has been quite a while since we had stopped in here and decided to give it a go. It was exactly as I remembered it which explains why we hadn’t been here for so long. Instead of a building worn by sixty years of business, this place seems like a movie set from the back side of the façade. It seems press board and coat hangers are the primary materials of construction. Good thing it wasn’t windy. B-K sent us a naturally polite and informative woman to see what we wanted. Here they sent us a bitter harpy who could barely keep on her feet as she scolded us to hurry up and order cuz it’s cold out here.
 

Looks Familiar

We would have been quicker in ordering if we were able to decode the menu faster…or maybe they could just call things what they are on the menu…then you can wobble back to your hut and take your time getting everyone’s order ready. Seriously. You say you make your own coney sauce but you don’t have a coney dog on the menu.  Don’t call is a Spanish dog, at least not in this part of the country. What’s a Mexiburger? Answer? Anyone? It’s a sloppy joe on a hot dog bun. That’s not a Mexiburger…that’s a sloppy joe on a hot dog bun.

Having suffered the appropriate prodding we ordered a single root beer, a cheeseburger, Spanish dog, fries and in a surprise a Bahama Mama sausage from Schmidt’s in C-bus. About the time Jezebel teetered back into the hut to finish working on her poisoned apple the show starter. A younger girl ran from the house across the street and followed her into the hut. Within minutes she was followed by a guy (bf/brother?) on a rice rocket. Yes, he has put on all of his gear and started a bike to ride to the end of the driveway and across the street.
 

I don’t know what exactly he did but the younger employee was clearly unhappy with him and not worried about showing it. She “handed” him a piece of paper which he stuck in his mouth and rode back across the street. Watching him try to ride made me realize why he had taken the time to suit up…it’s a coin flip that he would make it all the way up the drive. Two minutes later he pulled out of the drive way in a car. At least we got a show with lunch, didn’t understand all of it, but that’s performance art I guess.
 

The younger lady was much more cordial than the one wearing the ruby slippers but she didn’t know where any of the orders went, I guess it was more communication than they were interested in. The Spanish coney sauce isn’t bad but wrapped in paper the whole dog was a soupy sweaty mess. The burger was nearing criminal, the fries didn’t taste remotely of potato or anything else for that matter and the sausage they bought from Columbus was fine outside of the rain forest grodiness that ruined every sandwich. Worst of all was the root beer. At first sip it actually shows a great deal of promise, then it disappears. Sort of like a fight during an NBA game. Lots of chest thumping and braggadocio and maybe someone will sneak up behind someone else, punch them in the back and immediately retreat. B-K’s beverage was more like a hockey fight, toe to toe, swinging for the fences, all the way to the penalty box. No comparison. One of many reasons I think I would walk the 20 miles to Cuyahoga Falls before driving the 2 minutes to The Root Beer Drive-In.