A&W to return, set up shop in BP Ultimart

A&W will be back in Ripon in the spring of 2012. "There have been complications with corporate issues but I hope that the project will begin as soon as possible," said Craig Tebon, Downtown Manager, Ripon Main Street. "Ultimart, will be adding A&W to their convenience store building. Right now they are going through a review process and we hope for the best news to get the project up and running as soon as possible," said Tebon. 

"After they had assessed the damages from the fire of the old A&W building, they decided in the end to demolish the building and start over. Since the lot is so small they thought it would be better to add A&W on to BP. This will also help correct issues they had with the drive thru as well," Tebon said. 

"The reason they are combining the two businesses is for economical reasons," said Tebon. Kraig Bauman, owner of Ultimart, said, "We have seen this done in other communities and it seems to be working well for them. The cross traffic compliments each business just as well." A person who comes to get gas at BP may be hungry and the smell of hot food might attract that customer to purchase something to eat while they continue to drive. 

"If we wanted to look into getting a different fast food restaurant in that section of Ripon it would take a lot of consideration and more work. We were the building behind A&W and we chose to accept them. Since they were already represented in the area a new business would not be an available option in our case. Overall, I think that the whole thing will be better off combined," said Bauman.  

"In the end we hope that a new A&W is brought back to the downtown because the business compliments the rest of the restaurants in the district. Right now there are not any fast food restaurants and I think that will help other restaurants get more customers. I am hoping that when the restaurant is put up that it will attract more people to the downtown area. We want people to see our downtown and everything it has to offer," said Tebon. 

There you have it. A&W will be back in town soon. All you A&W lovers will be able to go back and get "Papa Burgers," root beer, cheese curds, and whatever else you would get again. When A&W comes back to town college students will be able to go out and enjoy the food of the downtown that they enjoyed so long ago.