Farrell's, again

Back in the 1980s, there was a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor in Montclair on the northwest corner of the Montclair Plaza property. The place was eventually torn down and paved over (it's part of the Plaza's parking lot today).

That didn't stop us for searching for Farrell's in the area. One night my wife, her brother, and his wife all piled in the car to head out to a Farrell's in the San Gabriel Valley. It was a Saturday night, and since we were all children of the 1970s, we had "Disco Saturday Night" on the radio.

But I digress.

That Farrell's closed down also, which meant that the whole country (not just the IE was Farrell's-less).

Well, Farrell's is about to make a comeback here, and elsewhere. The Press-Enterprise announced that a new Farrell's will be opening in the Terra Vista Town Center, in a spot previously occupied by a Macaroni Grill. (One chain's misfortune provides a pig's trough of opportunity for another chain.)

To learn about the demise and resurrection of Farrell's, go to the history page at Farrell's website. Excerpts:

In 1963, Robert "Bob" Farrell opened the first Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour in Portland, Oregon. It immediately became a huge success and by 1970 the company had grown to 58 restaurants. In 1971, Bob Farrell was approached by the Marriott Corporation who subsequently bought the company. He continued to work with Marriott as the company grew to 130 locations nationwide....

[In 1985] [n]ow under new ownership, the Farrell’s concept was changed from a unique celebration restaurant to a traditional family style restaurant. By 1990 almost all Farrell's locations closed....

In 1996, a new company whose mission was to bring back the heydays of Farrell's past acquired Farrell's Ice Cream Parlours. From this purchase, a few legal tussles from 2003-2008 again stopped Farrell's development.

More here. The legal wranglings of the early 2000s are described here.

Parlour Enterprises...had entered into a development agreement in 2000 with the Kirin Group lead by Herman Chan, to build Farrell’s throughout California. Chan decided to cancel Parlour's rights in 2003 citing that Parlour owed back attorney’s fees to Kirin....

The resulting lawsuit filed by Parlour against Kirin found the two embroiled in a three week-long trial resulting in a $6.6 million jury verdict in favor of Parlour. The verdict was then appealed by Kirin, which resulted in a substantial reduction of the judgment a year later. Parlour then pursued collection of the remaining judgment resulting in Kirin filing for bankruptcy.

Just after Parlour got its judgment, Chan sold the rights to the Farrell’s trademarks for Hawaii to the E Noa Corporation and its president, Maki Kuroda. The sale resulted in Parlour’s lawsuit against E Noa, and E Noa’s countersuit to claim those rights.

In the end, Parlour Enterprises and E Noa Corporation decided to share the rights giving E Noa Corporation rights to Farrell’s in Hawaii and Asia, and Farrell’s International securing the continental U.S. and the remaining countries throughout the world.

So a sticky situation was averted.