Taking a walk through his basement, it’s safe to say one Fort St. John resident has a lot of love for A&W restaurants.
That’s because Marcel Kristoff has an extensive collection of mugware from the restaurant — some over 100 years old — as well as memorabilia and other trinkets.
Kristoff and his wife moved to Fort St. John back in 2006 to become partners in the A&W franchise in the city.
They sold their interest around mid-2012, shortly after Kristoff said his “obsession” began.
“I only had about 50 glasses, hardly anything,” said Kristoff. “An older lady came into the restaurant one day less than a year before we sold. She told my wife she had some old A&W glasses and if we wanted them back.
“My wife said she didn’t want them but she was sure her husband would take them. She brought in a couple of boxes of old mugs and even some root beer jugs. I took them home because you can’t use old glasses in the restaurant, just the current one. That’s where it sort of started out.”
By his own estimation, Kristoff has 1,300 different A&W glasses. Of the 160 different glass styles the restaurant has issued in its history, he says he has around 140 of those glasses.
“I’m in my happy place, as my wife says,” said Kristoff, referring to his basement. He says he has bought glasses from different parts of Canada and the United States, and even got some glassware online.
Included in Kristoff’s collection is a mug from Sacramento station K-Zap 98.5 FM (now KRXQ) featuring 1960s’ DJ Boom Boom Anderson and even shelves of coffee mugs from other chains including McDonald’s, Subway and even 1960s drive-in Dog ‘n’ Suds.
“I know we bought some from somebody in Saskatchewan. We got a couple of small collections from Medicine Hat,” said Kristoff. “We actually bought a big collection of memorabilia from a guy just outside of Langley.
“We took a U-haul trailer from here all the way down there, loaded up and brought it back. That was probably about over 500 mugs. They didn’t all survive the road back, though, we lost about 18 of them after hitting a big bump.”
A highlight of Kristoff’s travels has been heading to Lodi, California to the world’s first A&W location. He bought five glasses dating back to 1921 from the visit.
Aside from the 400 he has on display, he has doubles in storage containers. Kristoff also has stuffed animals from A&W, along with an A&W collector’s jacket.
With dwindling room in his basement, Kristoff has some of his collection available online via Facebook Marketplace.
“I got some common ones that I have, some of them that were given to me for free,” said Kristoff. “I got some I paid 50 cents for, some I paid $150 for.
“Five dollars will get you a decent, rare mug. Ten dollars can get you a pretty scarce one.”
To view Kristoff’s A&W collection, visit his Facebook Marketplace ad.
