Wednesday, May 24, 2017

South Belt Spot: Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor at Almeda Mall


At its height, Farrell's had 130 stores in operation. 

The Farrell's in the South Belt was opened in 1975 in Almeda Mall. 

From the Galveston Daily News, July 29, 1975

Farrell's was founded in Portland, OR in 1963 and by 1970 Marriott Corp. had bought the company, keeping its founder, Bob Farrell as head of operations until 1985, when Marriott sold the company, whose new owners promptly changed the concept and drove it out of business by 1990.

The South Belt Leader had a few mentions of Farrell's in its early days:







The search for our readers' Almeda Farrell's photos has, so far , yielded these two from Michelle Roeder:



This one contributed by Scott Head:



And these two posted from Carla Hegeman Crim just yesterday!



I had asked the South Belt Facebook group to post a few memories they had of the place. 



 A Google Image Search will yield a few photographs that look vaguely like "our" Farrell's





and you can still find some ephemera for sale on places like eBay




But the biggest goldmine of photographs is still the Houston Area yearbook photos. 















In 2009, with Bob Farrell's help, the brand was reborn as its original concept in Orange County, CA and it now boasts franchises in seven CA locations as well as Honolulu, HI. 


And yes, they still boast the Pig Trough and the Farrell's Zoo on the Parlour Menu




For comparison's sake, here are the prices from the 1970's era menu around the time the Almeda Mall one opened:





3 comments:

  1. I miss this place. Ferrell's and Pipe Organ Pizza.

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  2. I went to school with several of those kids at Milby HS.

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  3. Ok, for years now and I do mean years, I have been racking my brain, asking family & friends and they all looked at me like I was making this place up. I could NEVER ever remember the name of it but my only memory of this wonderful motherload as a child was the tall ice cream (of any kind), the music, the lights & colors and the amazing fun this little tyke ever had! I was maybe 4-6 yrs old (52 yrs old now) but I just remember us kids (& cousins) all going on the weekends when our dad had us and wow!!!  For some dumb reason I decided to Google search this again (a little nostalgic I guess) and 4 names popped up and without a moments hesitation, I knew when I saw the name, this was it! Literally lights and bells and sounds all went off and the taste of a root beer float comes back. It all just came rushing back and just made my month/year!  


    I love memories such as these ♥

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