mike fleming. -lemonis: nice to meet you. -mike: oh, my gosh.o farrell's ice cream parlour. are you celebrating anything today? lemonis: i'm celebrating life. [ siren wails, bell dings ] [ horns honking ] woman: whoo! together: it goes 1, 2, a 1, 2, 3. happy birthday! -woman: happy birthday. -lemonis: wow. out of nowhere, this big drum comes, and people are screaming, "happy birthday!" -i mean, it was crazy. -woman: happy birthday! lemonis: how does everybody feel about the awesome birthday songs? woman: it was just too loud. we couldn't have a conversation. -lemonis: too much? -woman: yeah. lemonis: i'm all for having fun and singing happy birthday and celebrating things, but there's a point where it's not an enjoyable dining experience anymore. man: well, this would be our menu. lemonis: okay. mike: the theme is a turn-of-the-century theme. lemonis: how many different items are on this menu? -mike: there's over 100. -lemonis: there's a lot on here. so, you've had a ton of restaurant experience? mike: i had very little restaurant experience. le

this place is awesome. ...and was reopened in 2010 by mike fleming and paul kramer.s is really what you guys are known for, giant ice cream sundaes. paul: it is. lemonis: the new owners wasted no time in opening up new locations. when i arrived, there were five -- buena park, brea, riverside, sacramento, and rancho cucamonga. paul: farrell's is part of families. it was part of mine, and it's part of millions. lemonis: but while the restaurants generated more than $17 million a year in revenue, they were starved for cash. mike and paul were sucking out the cash from the two profitable locations to prop up the three that were losing, and to pay down massive debts. the total amount of debt -- $1,940,000. equipment was failing, the food was lackluster, and the key iconic feature of farrell's, the candy store, had disappeared. i'm not really sure that the theme is clear to me. so i made a $750,000 investment to revive the brand. part of the money went to me buying 51% of the trademark, with the other 49% held by mike, paul, and other investors. the rest went to remodeling