No Fooling! America Goes 'Curd Crazy' on April Fool's Day; Have One on Us: A&W Gives America Free Root Beer with Purchase of Cheese Curds on April 1.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- To celebrate one of the most popular product introductions in its 86-year history, A&W(R) Restaurants will give a free Root Beer to any customer with the purchase of Cheese Curds on April 1. No fooling.

"Nothing goes with a frosty mug of our famous A&W Root Beer like an order of our Curiously Delicious(TM) Cheese Curds," said Bill Ruby, Director of Marketing for A&W All American Food. "How do you top the combination of the two? By having A&W pick up the tab for your Root Beer, of course."

But the giveaways don't end there. Each participating location in the U.S. will give one lucky customer free Cheese Curds for an entire year, and an additional winner will be selected online at www.curdcrazy.com. In addition, a national print advertisement featuring Cheese Curds will be distributed in late March.

Cheese Curds are chunks of the richest, creamiest Wisconsin white cheddar cheese, lightly breaded and fried to a golden brown. The fine folks in Wisconsin - who know their cheese - coined the quirky name for the popular appetizer.

Wisconsin A&W franchisees have been selling Cheese Curds for years, and in 2004, a large majority of more than 500 single-brand A&W Restaurants across the country added the product to their menus. Earlier this year, most of the 500-plus multibrand A&W outlets also began selling Cheese Curds, and what was once a regional favorite has now become a national obsession.

The A&W Restaurants menu is filled with popular items such as root beer floats, chili cheese fries and onion rings. But only one A&W menu item has a dedicated web site - Cheese Curds.

How obsessed are Americans with A&W Cheese Curds? Obsessed enough to write letters to a cow to share their "Curd Crazy" stories. That's right: letters to a cow. Some of the A&W customers who have visited curdcrazy.com have been moved to record comments like this:

"I must say, there is no better Cow than you. You give me milk and you give me cheese, but best of all you give me the Cheese Curd," one fan wrote. "I can see in your big, black eyes that you put a little love in every drop of milk you give and for that, my Moo Cow friend, I love you."

Besides being able to read fan mail to "Mrs. Cow," visitors to curdcrazy.com can play games, read up on dairy-themed trivia, locate the nearest A&W restaurant and download a coupon for an order of Cheese Curds for only $1.99.

A&W customers can enjoy a free regular-sized Root Beer with the purchase of Cheese Curds at participating A&W locations on Friday, April 1, 2005. Customers can also enter to win "Free Cheese Curds for a Year" (one order per week) at any participating A&W restaurant. Entries will be taken in store from March 28 through April 8. Winners will be chosen on April 9 and notified shortly thereafter. Winners can begin claiming their free Cheese Curds beginning the week of April 18, 2005. An additional winner will be selected from online entries at www.curdcrazy.com. Official rules will be available in store and posted on the web site.

A&W Restaurants, Inc., the longest running quick service franchise chain in America (www.awrestaurants.com), is celebrating its 86th anniversary in 2005. Since 1919, A&W(R) All American Food(R) has been serving a signature frosty mug root beer float and All American pure-beef hamburgers and hot dogs. There are nearly 700 A&W All American Food outlets in 15 countries and territories around the world, and an additional 545 points of distribution at Yum! Brands multibrand restaurants. A&W Restaurants is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., Louisville, Ky. (NYSE:YUM).