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A double cheeseburger, an order of curly french fries and a large root beer with extra ice.
Employees of the A&W Family Restaurant on Overland Road probably heard that order barked out thousands of times from one of the eight drive-in speakers. But the speakers have gone silent with the closing of the 19-year-old restaurant, marking an end of an era in Boise's fast-food history. The only remaining A&W restaurant is in the food court at the Boise Towne Square mall. There is no carhop service, but that famous root beer is still being sold.
Jerry Sellman recently sold the Overland restaurant to investors, who plan to remodel the building and open a Taco Bell. He said he first thought about getting out of the business about 1 1/2 years ago.
"I'm just getting tired," Sellman, 52, said of his decision to sell. "It's a seven-days-a-week job. I'm going on 30 years in the business."
It is a long career that holds plenty of memories for Sellman. Memories like carhops who stood outside to take orders (no speakers) and made change out of cigar boxes. Of people bringing in washed out gallon vinegar jugs to be filled with root beer. Of a time when cheeseburgers were a quarter and a cup of root beer was a dime.
In talking to Sellman, there is a quick realization that root beer syrup runs through his family's veins.
Oldest brother Hal Sellman started the family's interest in the chain by buying an A&W restaurant on Fairview Avenue in the early 1460s (it's now the El Cazador restaurant).
Jerry and his middle brother, Robert, followed suit a few years later, buying the A&W in Nampa in...