Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

[maui]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

anyone out there who have work for any of the farrell back in the 70's?

[maui]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

anyone out there who have work for any of the farrell back in the 70's?

looking for some worker who have work for all the farrell's in hawaii

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

We're not talking about Christmas; we're talking about freakin' Labor Day, the most archaic national holiday since Good Friday, if you ask me.

Funny that I would finally see this comment when the thread was resurrected on Columbus Day ... oh, excuse me, "Discoverer's Day."

You'd think Kaneohe was Hilo...

I've been there in some heavy rain, but never enough to make that mistake.

[maui]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

Pat McDonald-VP
Don Clark-owner
that just some of the people who have been with farrell back then.

[DannyWilliams]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

Bells & Sirens is what FARRELLS is all about
Nice to see them back up again. Soooooo its only 2 locations at the moment according to their website?

Sooooooo how many locations used to be on Oahu before they closed up eons ago....
The only ones I rememba is obviously Ala Moana and Waikiki (ova by International Marketplace)......

[maui]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

back then in the 70's to early 80; there 4 in honolulu:
Kalaha-pearlridge-ala mona and international place. (I might be wrong, but someone say there was one more somewhere on oahu.
I work at all of them, except the one in ala mona.
So are there any old farrell's worker out there? I know bill turner and mike mcdonald; managers.

[Erika Engle]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

My colleague, Nadine Kam, just reviewed the place.

If you're a consistent reader of her reviews, you already know she's not a big fan of deep-fried or fattening foods.

She wasn't crazy about IHOP, either.

http://starbulletin.com/2006/10/08/features/eater.html

I couldn't possibly be a restaurant reviewer/food critic. I'm way too easy to please. After all, with very few exceptions, FOOD is my favorite!

[pzarquon]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

Wow. Nadine's such a sour puss. Frankly, trying to do a serious food review of Farrell's is like trying to do the same at Chuck E. Cheese. A "pleasant dining experience" is nowhere near the top of the priorities list!

Glad I decided to take a road trip with the family over to Kaneohe from Mililani and check it out for myself.



Let's get the tough stuff out of the way first. The place is a madhouse. Noisy. Kids underfoot everywhere. We had an hour wait, the people who walked up a few minutes later were told two hours. Some folks were getting pretty rude with the flustered staff (hey, show up with a party of eight, expect to wait a while). Servers obviously had to juggle actual serving with being pulled aside to sing, or deliver two-person dessert presentations, and a couple had their boyfriends loitering around... but for the most part, they kept smiling and persevered, and so did we.

I definitely remember the rich, Victorian-style, dark wood and brass decor of the old Farrell's, and this new location does not come anywhere near that level of character.

But, it wasn't half as bad as I expected, compared to the scenes I saw on KHON a couple months back where it was basically indistinguishable from the McDonald's it replaced. They dimmed the lights, covered the wall with old photos, and did what they could to evoke that carnival feel, from a carousel horse and player piano to a nifty old-style candy store off to the side. And of course the staff wore those white straw hats and red pinstripe vests. The best news of all? There is indeed a drum and a loud siren to herald special deliveries. The drum stays behind the counter and it's only sporadically invoked (it sure seemed constant when I was a kid), but the place is noisy enough without it. It also still seemed like a work in progress, and perhaps over time other touches will be added to make the decor more rich and fun.

There's a party room that looks like it handles two groups of about twenty at once or one group of 50, and it was constantly turning over. Looks like some of the staff got some basic balloon animal training, and the kids were definitely having a blast.

Kudos to the staff, by the way, mostly young kids who clearly need something special to have the stamina and dignity to play along... singing half a dozen different happy birthday songs, doing little dances, twisting balloons, serving huge desserts, announcing celebrations at the top of their lungs. I sure couldn't do it.

The menu is basic diner fare, though I still was surprised to see soup and salad next to the burgers and sandwiches. The usual suspects on the kiddie menu, and some tasty sounding burgers. Kids had chicken nuggets, corn dog, macaroni and cheese, my wife had the patty melt with some huge, thick onion rings, I had a mushroom burger with "waffle fries" (they called them something else). I'm no burger expert (I turn to glossyp for the final word), but I thought mine was pretty good... much better than I'd expect for a place where you'd almost assume food was an afterthought. Juicy, moist, messy, melty, thick mushrooms...

Then, of course, the desserts. They all sounded decadent. The "Diamond Head" for $20, the "Mauna Kea" for $40, the pig's trough... Someone ordered the "Honolulu Zoo" while we were there, a huge platter carried out on the shoulders of two staffers and announced with all the noise they could muster. The kids had the "clown sundae," a neat treat with ice cream, Nilla cookies, whipped cream, an upside down sugar cone and sprinkles. My wife and I split the pig's trough... and barely finished half of it!

Afterward, we waddled over to the candy store... the big hit was the "Pucker Powder" tower, where you filled a thick straw with sour sugar in varying flavors. My son thought it was a magic wand and soon sprinkled half the mall with his, my daughter sucked hers down in ten minutes and is now bouncing off the walls.

In all, I enjoyed myself. The crowd and noise was what I expected, the ambiance really wasn't as stark as I feared it would be, the food was better than I expected, and of course the desserts were awesome. I'm probably going to be regretting that pig's trough ice cream Sunday for half the week, but it was worth it.

See the Farrell's photos posted from my smartphone here. I also got some shots with my regular digicam and even a few video clips as well. Stay tuned!

[Pomai]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

Pzarquon,

YOUR review, along with that comprehensive set of (flickr) photos should have been the one published in Star Bulletin. Thank you very much!

It's hard for most of us to remember the minute details that went into the Farrell's we were familiar with as a kid. Now that I look at those photos of the decor, didn't the Farrell's back "then" have that line-art wallpaper all around? You know, the one with the couple sharing the sundae together.. kinda' like how Subway. Also, I think the original decor was more tavern-like, using more wood paneling.

But whoah. Your explanation of the Mushroom Burger (you know how I feel about that!) along with photo showing that their fries are WAFFLE CUT. I must try this.

Must the operative word, as both you and Nadine made clear the wait to get a seat is a long one. I'll wait for the hype to simmer (if it ever does soon) before even attempting a drive into Kaneohe for this experience.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

Glad to know they have the drum and the siren now -- they were nowhere to be heard when I was there. It's not Farrell's without them!

[pzarquon]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

Glad to know they have the drum and the siren now -- they were nowhere to be heard when I was there. It's not Farrell's without them!

Indeed! So, to add onto my HT review, and my moblog cameraphone collection... for your audiovisual enjoyment, I present a videoblog entry featuring some scenes from the delicious insanity of Farrell's. Also posted to YouTube for those who prefer your sundaes served that way!

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

All I know is that we tried to take my son for his birthday at Windward Mall, were told to wait "45 minutes", came back and they told us it would be another 1 hour to 90 minutes because the people are sitting talking story and we cant tell them to leave. I was ticked off because when you wait 45 minutes at the end of that timeframe you should be expected a table. The biggest problem there is its in a old fast food restaurant and they dont have the room of a larger scale restaurant which they need.

The old wallpaper I remember at Wendy's years ago too, was also on their tables.

KalihiBoy

[pzarquon]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

They definitely need a pager system or to start taking cell phone numbers. In the crunch, there were definitely frayed nerves as they tried to hold tables for parties that wandered off while others standing right there grumbled about empty seats. I stayed put for our whole wait, summoning back the family as our name came up, and we definitely benefitted from some prior parties being absent when their names were called.

But I still enjoyed myself, and don't understand people who get so worked up so that they basically hate the whole experience by the end. Farrell's is Farrell's, not Michel's. Chill, and enjoy the chaos.

Not that I have the stamina to visit every week... or month, for that matter... But I'm glad I went.

[Bill Turner]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

yippie,yea I remember Farrells a guy his steven fung I think he work kahala,Kahala was the first Farrells then Waikiki then Ala Moana and Pearl ridge and i think Maui was next Maybe.Anyway saqw the picture no look like old Farrells they had red wall paper and the tiffaney style lites.If you go the location where Farrells was in Waikiki at International Market Place the stairs are still there that led up to the place there is a chinese restaurant there and the lite are still there thats all thats left.I see they change the names of the sundaes no zoo sundae big sandwhich the gastro some thing came out on a big wooden board also how about shakes and malts or old fashion sodas like the black and white or choc. soda with ice cream inside and one hanging on the out side of the glass.

[maui]

Re: Farrell's returning! Woo hoo!

Hey bill!
What a small world! Finally after all these years. So have you heard anything
about anyone else? Like Mike McDonald? Or Vickie Parmer. Cindy B-something,
what about Diane Chin and finally what about some of the managers; jerry (pearlridge), Robin (international mkt), David Born (ala mona) oh...super..remember him, didn't he's open maui? OR...Ken M-something..he's left to work for Marriott (after it was taken over by them)
where are you living at now? As for me, retire and standed on my feet with the dot.com stocks back a a couple year ago.
I''ll heard that you also did well! In the business world! Sold a program for major bucks! okay you have my email address...will have to get ahold of you!