Another generation of parents can soon terrify its children at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour.
According to KPTV, Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour is returning to Portland.
There’s no timeline yet, other than “as soon as possible.”
The first Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour opened in Portland in 1963, followed quickly by numerous franchises (58 by 1970). The heyday of the chain lasted through the 70s and into the early 80s. (You can read the whole story here.) A new Farrell’s recently opened in Mission Viejo, California.
Alas, as I’ve written before, I don’t have particularly fond memories of Farrell’s:
In the 70s and early 80s in Portland, if you were a parent with a sensitive child who didn’t like to be the center of attention, Farrell’s was the place to bring him on his birthday to thoroughly embarrass and humiliate him.
Bright lights, banging drums, sickening quantities of ice cream, and teenagers disguised as members of a barbershop quartet: a recurring nightmare and also my childhood memory of Farrell’s.
Read the rest: Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour – a 30-something Portlander’s flashback (#2)
Related posts:
That’s AWESOME!!! We’re going to celebrate our kids’ birthdays at Farrell’s next time we’re up there, no matter what time of year it is. Can’t wait!
My problem was simply that we couldn’t afford Farrell’s. So other kids would talk about doing their birthdays there…but we never could.
As a 50-year-old, I have wonderful memories of Farrell’s, always a special event in my life! The “Portland Zoo” which consisted of about 50 (or was it 1,000?) scoops of ice cream covered with tiny plastic animals, the speech you could memorize to win a banana split (“Farrell’s features fabulous fun for the whole family” etc etc). And the huge jawbreakers and other massive sugar treats they sold on the way out. Wouldn’t mind taking my kids there now!
Others have said they were too pricey, but my single mom took me there all the time..think I can remember the friend’s mom complaining about price, but she was always c’ing about bad restaurant food, and ‘we’ll never go there again’..
How about back to Seattle? I wonder if any of you had Jafko or the Pay-n-Pak, Pay-n-Save, SportsWest, Sambo’s pancake house, chains down there…got my first Casio digital watch at the former.
”Farrell’s features fabulous fun for the whole family”
wow, good memory!
Wow… nice trip down memory lane there JD… I haven’t thought about Pay-n-Pak or Sambo’s Pancake House in years. Jafco though, who could forget them?
Personally I’m pretty excited to visit a Farrell’s again – now that I have my own money and don’t have to rely on my parents to take me there I’m sort of curious as to how much I’ll actually like it. I know where I’m having my birthday next year.
hooray ”’ my fondest memories are taking my children to Farrell’s for there birthdays ” my boyfriend and i are both turning fifty in a few months and we are hoping to celebrate this big birthday at Farrell’s with a zoo ;;