Downtown Brea & Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour

On Saturday k attended a birthday party at the Michael’s store in Brea.  As part of the gift, I sewed up tote bags for the twin birthday girls.

We don’t find ourselves in that part of Orange County very much so we decided to take the opportunity to explore downtown Brea a little after the party.  It is a nice little upscale-ish area.  For dinner we ate at Flame Broiler with a BOGO coupon. 

We saw a line of people along the main street and wondered what it was for.  It turned out to be Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour, so we decided to see what the fuss was all about.  Ninety minutes later (yes, 1.5 hours!) we were finally seated.  The only other time when we have waited that long for a restaurant was when D and I were in Chicago and decided to go to Rick Bayless’ restaurant without a reservation.  I wanted to give up at around 45 minutes, but by then, you feel like you’ve already invested so much time, you might as well stick it out.  That concept from Econ 101 of “sunk cost” just never made sense to me. 

It was kind of fun to watch the sundaes being made.  This one had 30 scoops of ice cream!

What was maddening was to see a lot of empty tables.  The turnover seemed to be really slow.

D had grabbed a menu while we were in line so we knew exactly what we wanted: Ice Cream Nachos.    

“Think crispy tortilla dish, except we use waffle cone pieces for dipping into mint chip, chocolate malted crunch and vanilla ice cream.  All topped with hot fudge, caramel, blue berries, whip cream, almonds and a cherry. Olé! $8.99”

We told the waitress to hold the almonds, and she asked if it was just a preference or allergies.  When we said allergies, she said she would make a note of it, which I really appreciated.  (We have had an incident with a contaminated ice cream scoop before). 

It was good, but how difficult is it to scoop ice cream on top of waffle cone pieces?  I think the main appeal is the party atmosphere and friendly service.  Everyone just seemed so happy, wearing balloon hats, singing, etc.  I really liked the chocolate malted crunch ice cream, though.  And n REALLY enjoyed the whole thing.  On the way home, he said, “That ice cream was SO GOOD.  This was the best day of my whole entire life.”  That comment right there made the whole experience worth it.