Frostop Root Beer Mug

Ashton, Idaho

It's a welcome mirage from mid-20th century America - a huge frosty mug foaming over with root beer. The first burger and root beer stand for the Frostop brand was opened in Springfield, Ohio in 1926 by entrepreneur L.S. Harvey. The chain grew over the decades, by the 1950s and '60ss there were hundreds displaying its signature roadside signs with eye-catching, rotating root beer mugs.

Ashton's Frostop Drive-In was built in 1965, operated by a succession of owners (at one point renamed as "Mug Jugs" before returning to the Frostop brand). The current owners bought the restaurant in 2007, now called the Frostop Old Fashioned Drive-In. They still serve Frostop root beer, in glass mugs and the big mug sign in the parking lot still rotates.