farrelladults Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours became a crazy-popular chain in the 1960s by dressing its employees like they were in the 1890s and making them act like they were on LSD. Waiters in striped vests, bow ties and cane hats worked from a menu famous for gluttonously proportioned desserts, with names like The Pig’s Trough and The Zoo,  making wacky all the while.

The silliness hit its high point—and still we’re not sure how literally—when somebody ordered The Zoo … that is, four flavors of ice cream, three fruit-flavor sherbets, four toppings, whipped cream, cherries, almonds, pecans and bananas. The abominable concoction was delivered via something like a sedan chair, on the shoulders of a couple of waiters, in a production of sirens, bells, whistles and frantic scrambling not unlike the air-raid drills of the period. Back then, we all really did scream for ice cream.

There’s been talk of a Farrell’s comeback almost from the moment a San Francisco investment group mismanaged the chain out of business in the 1990s. So far, the local impact amounts to one shop in Mission Viejo.

But a story by Eric Pierce in the Dec. 21 edition of The Downey Patriot, which quoted a story by Nancy Luna in the Dec. 15 Orange County Register, reported that Farrell’s is preparing for a sizeable expansion.

“It’s official,” shouted the Register headline, and that sounded downright incontrovertible … until you read the story closely.

Turns out, Luna based her piece on nothing more official than a press release from Grubb & Ellis, the Newport Beach real estate investment firm, which says it has been hired to scout prospective locations. She mentioned cities like Huntington Beach and Anaheim in northern Orange County and Torrance and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. “Specifically,” she wrote, “Farrell’s is looking for sites at least 20 miles from its Mission Viejo location.”

Back in Downey, Pierce entered that data into his GPS and emerged with the suggestion that Farrell’s just might want to put one of its “parlours” in Downey. There had been a Farrell’s in the city’s Stonewood Center the first time around, as well as in Los Cerritos Center and up in Rosemead. Before going to press, Pierce did a little fishing at Downey City Hall—and got a nibble.

“Downey officials said they have been in contact with Farrell’s representatives,” Pierce reported, “but they would not divulge details.”

Pierce followed up a few days later with Downey City Council member Mario Guerra and got a little more. Then again, Guerra has never met a question he couldn’t resist answering, and considering all the sweet talking he did earlier this year about the inevitability of a Tesla automobile manufacturing plant coming to Downey—he talked almost to the moment Tesla announced it wasn’t coming—it’s hard to say what his words are worth.

This is the ones he gave, anyway:

“Our staff and I met with the owners and expressed our interest and willingness to work with them and to facilitate their going “back to the future” here in Downey,” Guerra said. “They were very interested in us also. All I can say is that there is a genuine interest on all parties. We discussed several locations for them and we will keep everyone updated.”