TheBuzz Erika Engle

Long-gone ice cream parlor Farrell's is coming back

E Noa Corp., known for its trolleys and the Japanese visitors and local party groups it shuttles around town, is the new Farrell's franchisee.

The company could not be reached, but Windward Mall officials confirmed that E Noa signed a lease yesterday for the former McDonald's space at the mall, right across from Baskin & Robbins' take-out counter and the Tilt video game arcade.

The ice cream parlor is scheduled to open in the second quarter of next year.

"Everybody remembers Farrell's for something different," observed Kim Person, marketing manager at Windward Mall.

There was the Pig's Trough, a huge dish of ice cream that, if finished by one person, would net the piggy a ribbon announcing to the world they had made a pig of themselves at Farrell's.

"I remember The Zoo," Person said.

"I thought it was 50 scoops of ice cream and they came running (to serve it) with the sirens blaring," she said.

"I don't know how old I was, going there for birthday parties, and closing my ears because it was so loud, but I was just waiting for the ice cream to come."

A friend of Person's worked at the Ala Moana store during her high school days, when the red-and-white uniforms with garters and those funny fake-straw hats were far from cool, "but it was fun," Person remembered.

Was there not also a dish, The Mauna Kea, served at the old Ala Moana location, that was also a mountainous serving of multiple scoops? Person said she thought the dish sounded familiar but she was not sure.

There were the TV commercials with jingles that began, "Farrell's is fabulous fun for everyone ...," making Farrell's a must-stop for neighbor island residents during any trip to Honolulu.

There was also a Farrell's at Kahala Mall, according to message board posters recalling small-kid-time birthday parties there.

Franchisees are up and running in California and expansion is in the works to revive the restaurant chain, according to a search of the Web.

Among the first to reopen a Farrell's parlor after the chain's slow, painful demise through several ownership changes were Bruce Ortman and Paul Greenfield.

Michael Fleming is a franchisee in Santa Clarita, Calif., who has a Web site with a company history, old pictures and a menu at www.farrellsusa.com.

News articles and message-board posts on the Internet fondly recall youthful experiences at the ice cream parlor and express parents' excitement that they can now take their children to the family focused eateries for some of the same memories they enjoyed while growing up.