There’s a place in Sacramento with about a dozen sandwiches on the menu, but specializes in desserts. Rick’s Dessert Diner in midtown/Lavender Heights is very popular, especially with the after theatre crowd.
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This place was sort of like that. I remember going once, but don’t recall how I felt about it.
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There used to be an SF Bay area ice cream chain called Farrell’s that had lunches, but featured ice cream, including a “Trough”: a banana split with six scoops of ice cream along with toppings. Back in the 1970s, my work group used to go there, and one time I skipped the meal, ordered the Trough, and finished it, earnng the award ribbon saying, “I made a pig of myself at Farrell’s”. I still have the ribbon.
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I had a few birthday parties at Farrell’s. It started in Portland, OR and spread elsewhere. Farrell’s was a really fun place, but I think it was much more fun for kids than adults.
Farrell’s was parodied in a classic episode of “The Bob Newhart Show” called “Sorry, Wrong Mother”. The episode features the late, great John Ritter as a waiter in the ice cream parlor. The episode isn’t available on YouTube, but is available on DailyMotion, a site whose safety I can vouch for.
The ice cream parlor scene begins at approximately 7:45 into the episode.
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There was a place in NY/NJ called Jahn’s, and they were known for The Kitchen Sink. It was definitely a group effort, as it contained “It starts with two scoops of every flavor of ice cream Jahn’s offers; Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Coffee, Butter Pecan, Cherry Vanilla, Pistachio Almond, Cookies & Cream, Vanilla Fudge, Chocolate Chip, Mint Chip, and Sherbet. On top of that they add fudge and caramel sauces, banana, pineapple and nuts, mountains of fresh whipped cream, and enough sprinkles and cherries to fill your heart’s desire.”
We always got it for our cast/crew parties after high school plays were done.
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I was born in NY (The Bronx), but we moved to LA a few months before I turned 6. There aren’t nearly enough of the old school NY places around, but I was glad to read that Jahn’s is still in business (the first article I linked is from 2016, the one you posted is from 2017, but Yelp shows that there is thankfully still one remaining location).
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I’ve driven past this place 100 times and never been in. My good friend, now sadly deceased, owned a small used bookstore at the same intersection.
There was (probably still is) a restaurant in Vienna, Austria where you went for a meal before a concert, then returned for the dessert after the concert.
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The first place they opened was in the theater district. The next one was around the corner and a couple blocks over from Harvard!
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wow! a Farrell’s recollection. i’m remembering it being the go-to place for kid’s birthdays parties, until maturing out of it.
they had an original birthday song that, was way over the top. i don’t think they featured actual sparklers, but i want to believe there was a loud drum involved.
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Thanks for posting both the Facebook link and the clip…I hadn’t seen either.
The Simpsons clip was really funny…I think it may have been based on an amalgamation of such places as Farrell’s and Chuck E. Cheese…which, although (thankfully) I only went to once, seemed to be a place which replaced Farrell’s for kids’ birthday parties.
As for the linked article, the writer seemed to have confused Jahn’s with Farrell’s as “The Kitchen Sink” was Jahn’s humongous ice cream bowl while Farrell’s was called “The Zoo”. I can’t recall if there were sparklers or not either, but there was definitely a drum. Farrell’s individually sized monstrosity was called “The Pig Trough” and if you finished it, you got a ribbon of sorts which proclaimed something like “I made a pig out of myself at Farrell’s”. I don’t think I ever ate one of those, but I do remember a big group of us finishing “The Zoo”. Incidentally, until reading that article, I had no idea that Farrell’s had reached the east coast at one point!
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There was one in Kennewick, WA when I lived there. I don’t remember what I used to order but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a Trough. Well done!
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Sorry to @eleeper that I had missed/forgotten that she said she had one of those ribbons!
I hate to see sparklers spraying chemicals all over a cake.
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Brings back fond memories of family birthday cakes when I was a kid.
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I attended a few kid’s birthday parties at the Brunswick Square Mall branch.
OK, but what about those ash snakes that burn up out of your ice cream? Those are OK, right?
I never order:
Lobster
Crab
Shrimp
Full belly clams
Anything green pepper.
Lobster nay for 2 reasons-- first, Dad owned a seafood restaurant for 40 years-- started as an “in the rough” place & I was the lobster cook. At first the smell is gross but you become nose-blind to it. I don’t hate the meat but never had the “OMG, so good!” reaction to it.
Crab-- just don’t like it. Yuck! My wife however is a crab cake aficionado.
Shrimp-- I’m meh about. Boiling the small shrimp for shrimp rolls/salad also smelled gross. OTOH, growing up, Mom always had a shrimp cocktail when we went out for dinner. I’ve come to like them too.
Full Belly Clams-- It’s a texture thing. I did FINALLY come to appreciate steamers (the other thing the lobster cook was responsible for) after 5 years. Also I was corrupted by Howard Johnson’s Fried Clam strips as a kid.
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Thazz ok. Let’s go out for dinner together, and I’ll take all the seafood off your hands 
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heh, I’m not a complete fish frowner. White Fish as F&C, chowder, broiled/baked fillets all 
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