So, what can be taken from this history? Was Farrell’s destined to be a “flash-in-the-pan”, or can it be successfully revitalized into a viable business?

Farrell's excelled in the 1960's by being a high-quality ice cream parlour and restaurant with a novel twist. In the 1970's it began changing into a novelty with steadily decreasing quality of product and service. More and more it became the place to go only for the kid's birthday, especially since one could eat a meal at Denny's for the same price as a banana split and coffee at Farrell's.

I believe that Farrell’s has unique and beneficial qualities about it, and I believe that these qualities would allow it to grow, once again, into a national presence. However, I also believe there are some guiding principles that must be observed for it to fully succeed. It would cost approximately $1.5 million to open a new parlour today. Once open, it would need to average no less than 5,500 guests per week, or $2 million/yr average sales. This is achievable - the parlour in Greendale averaged 6,000 guests/wk in 1977, and the estimated average for the Schaumburg parlour was more like 9,000 guest/wk; both of these parlours had been open for 6 years at this point. 5,500 guests/wk is achievable for most any mid-size market.

The current owners of Farrell's have done a good job working to bring back Farrell's, although their concept still needs refinement to achieve the full magic of the pre-Marriott Ice Cream Parlour. This is understandable, since much of what elevated Farrell's to its hailed status hasn't been around for over 30 years. Here are some comparative elements to consider, though:

• When Farrell's first opened in Portland, the name did not mean anything yet. It had to compete with the numerous soft-serve ice cream places (e.g. Dairy Queen) that were in preponderance at that time. Actual sit-down, full-service gourmet ice cream parlours had literally disappeared at that time. As long as Farrell and McCarthy could provide high-quality service and foods, they would draw customers and command a price that allowed them to make a profit. The birthday fun, siren and drum did not even exist in those first days.
• Today, there are more "hard" ice cream parlours and places than ever. Most of the "gourmet" places such as California-based Ghirardelli Chocolate and Illinois-based Oberweis Dairy offer high quality ice creams with butterfat content around 17%. Many of these parlours are not true full-service, though. There is something special about being waited on versus carrying your own food around.
• What about the kitchen? Farrell's original parlour did one-third of its dining room sales from the kitchen versus two-thirds from the fountain. Over the years, the only parlours with kitchen sales higher than 50% were the ones located in shopping malls. Those same parlours were the ones that saw sales tank when food courts and McDonald's moved in. Several attempts were made to boost kitchen sales. Marriott tried to increase the food focus with the Hollywood Menu in 1976. Farrell's, Inc. really went food-centric in 1983. There are over 7,400 full-service restaurants in Illinois alone (where I live), but only a few full-service ice cream parlours in the same state. Personally, I'd rather compete against the ice cream parlours. The kitchen menu is there to fill gaps in the business day, and I wouldn't lose too much sleep if those sales are not through the roof.
• Entertainment? Farrell's heyday was at a time when arcade games were limited to the Aladdin's Castle in the shopping mall or the midway at the state fair. Entertainment at Farrell's was people-driven, with the drum and bell, zany announcements, and running of the Zoo. Now, there are restaurants with built-in arcades, arcades with built-in restaurants, and there is a perception that a modern-day Farrell's would need this type of entertainment to be competitive. Moreover, other restaurants do birthday announcements on a routine basis.  So what does Farrell's need to succeed? Well, Farrell's most famous entertainment (outside of the birthdays and zoos) was the player piano. The piano was a remnant of times gone by, back before the days of radio, CD's and television. A well-to-do family seeking a little musical entertainment would slap a piano roll into the piano (the 1905 equivalent of putting a CD in the player), turn the system on, and listen to Scott Joplin or any one of dozens of performers. For Farrell's, nostalgia is the entertainment.
• And the ambiance, the style of the parlour? Farrell's was originally developed on the 1900's ice cream parlour style. At the time, it was a fresh, retro look. When Farrell's undertook the Sacramento Concept in 1982-83, they were looking for a style that would draw more customers in than the 20-year old gay-90's parlour concept. Customers were cool to the new look of both stores. in 1985, when Marriott reacquired the chain, they gave nearly all company-owned stores a facelift, eliminating the red-flocked wallpaper and painting the mahogany-colored paneling white. Customer's did not respond to this either. The Santa Clarita store has a nice feel to it, although I had one person tell me it looks like a Wendy's (ouch!). Then again, the new Honolulu Farrell's at the Windward Mall has been described as looking "like a children's playroom". I bet that one could open a brand new Farrell's, using the same motif as all the ones built in the 1960's and 1970's, and customers would love it. Isn't that scary?

So what will make Farrell's work going forward? Not just as the place that people go to because they "remember Farrell's years ago", because that gets guests to come in once or twice. Here's my ten-step program for success:

1. Remember what people remember Farrell's for - ice cream and fun. I see it all the time in other websites, conversations with people, conversation threads in Internet newsgroups. I am amazed at how many people don't even remember that Farrell's served food (it always had a kitchen menu).

2. Ask this question of yourself: If you were going to open an ice cream parlour and could not put the Farrell's name on it, how would you ensure success? The successful entrepreneur will focus on high-quality menu items and first-class service. This is what worked for Farrell's in the 1960's. Farrell's special formula ice creams, developed by Ken McCarthy, had 16% butterfat.  This is even more critical today since the competition is greater now than it was back then.

3. Location, Location, Location. I've seen Farrell's thrive and bomb inside shopping malls, and I've seen them thrive and bomb as free-standing stores. Is one better than the other? Mall-based Farrell's were decimated by food courts in the 1980's. Even before the food courts, many parlours saw their guest counts drop as the malls either lost traffic to other, newer shopping venues or saw the earning power of the mall shoppers drop due to changing demographics. Free-standing stores that were dogs pretty much opened as dogs and stayed there. I do not know of any free-standers that went from good to bad over time. Those that did well were on major thoroughfares, near shopping venues and movie theatres, and had great curb appeal.

4. Don't get too caught up in finding the "perfect" design motif. The original 1905 concept worked well, although the dark paneling and red wallpaper required the parlours to have lots and lots of lighting to give it a bright and festive look. The average Farrell's had between 600 and 1000 light bulbs (granted, most of them were those little 10-watt lamps in the bay window and ceiling coves, but that's still a lot of bulbs to change). The Santa Clarita style looks nice even though it is definitely not 1890's. It still has a timeless element to its style. The Mira Mesa store looked interesting although I did not care for the merry-go-round design of the fountain counter or the location of the candy shoppe. The etched glass panels added a nice touch to the dining room, as did the oak-trimmed simulated marble tabletops. Personally, I'd take the Santa Clarita parlour, put in a real ceiling, change the booth cushions to black, use the glass panels and table style of the Mira Mesa store, add the original fountain setup, and lay it all out like the old Los Angeles parlours that were designed so efficiently.

5. Don't dilute the value of the Farrell's name. When the Kirin Group was planning to partner with Paradigm Leisure & Entertainment, a news article said they would offer desserts from The Cheesecake Factory at a new Farrell's in Woodland Hills. While that deal fell through, there is still a lesson here somewhere. Hey, the sign does not say Farrell's Ice Cream and Cheesecake Parlour! Farrell's actually had cheesecake and pies on the menu during the '60s and early '70s, but those items did not sell big. Apparently, people went to ice cream parlours for ice cream. Go figure...

6. Learn from past mistakes. Even Bob Farrell and Ken McCarthy made mistakes and learned a lot when developing Farrell's throughout the 1960's. Yet, all through the Marriott days and post-Marriott era, the same mistakes were made at the corporate level. The excessive focus on food variety instead of ice cream, the attempts to dramatically change the parlour ambiance, and systematic compromises in product quality occurred several times, each time with the same predictable impact on sales. By 1985, the busiest Farrell's parlour was drawing as many guests per week as the median parlour drew in 1977. To the customer, the value was simply not there.

7. Be relentless on quality and service. All of the effort to develop a great looking parlour and tempting menu is lost if the customers are seated at a table with caked-on fudge on the edge, straw wrappers on the seat, and a torn, stained menu to read. And if a customer has to ask "will anyone be waiting on me today?", you just lost the game, set and match. Of course, this is true for all foodservice establishments (McDonald's had lost its focus here and only recently began recovering its guest counts).

8. Be one level higher than the competition. Most ice cream places either serve their sundaes in plastic, or in common-variety glassware, dishes and banana boats. Fast food sandwich shops will often put their burgers in paper-lined plastic baskets - one step up from the classic hinged foam container. Many of these places don't have full service either. Farrell's started out by providing full table service, highest quality products, and many of the sundaes were served in shining silver dishes (nickel silver, actually, but it still looked very rich) with silver-plated utensils. Customers got the "royal treatment" at a price they could affort, which brought them back again and again. 

9. Think entertainment. Sharply executed birthday announcements, short Keystone Cop skits, the occasional singing waiter all add to the unique ambience that is Farrell's. Done right, it adds up to a lot of fun. On the other hand, a poorly done announcement can be a real turn-off. Farrell's is a 12-hour a day stage production in addition to an ice cream parlour and restaurant.

10. Keep it fresh. One of the issues with many of the parlours in the late 1970's and early 1980's is that they looked "tired". Most of them had original wallpaper, flooring and furniture. A complete remodel is not necessary, just plan to replace tabletops every 7-8 years, re-paper the walls once a decade, and basically do not let people believe that the parlour had been around since 1900.

These are not all-inclusive, but simply a starting point to the successful Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour. Most of these could be applied to any foodservice business. All too often I have witnessed restaurants that were being run by managers who use the warm-body staffing approach. As someone once told me, running a successful restaurant is simple, but it is definitely not easy. If it were easy, the number of restaurant failures would be much lower than it is, and I would have nothing to complain about except for my cable TV service.

For the uninitiated, warm-body staffing is when the manager will hire the next person to submit an application simply to fill an open position with a "warm body", usually without regard to such specifics as job qualification, work ethic, personal hygiene, experience or temperament. These same managers also tend to do a horrible job training and developing employees; this can be observed if you have ever been to a restaurant where employees with dirty shirt tails hanging out alternate between handling your cash, assembling your lunch and running their fingers through their hair.