• Daria Bishop
• Hot dog, double cheeseburger, quart of fries, banana split and Maple Madness sundae

The sun was finally shining last Friday when Amanda and Keith Bumps and Kolby Richardson drove from Barre to Burlington. They had ordered lunch online from Al's French Frys and did not realize until they arrived that the ice cream window was open for the season.

In celebration, the family decided to start with dessert.

"The ice cream is definitely a good part of Al's," Kolby, 11, said while polishing off his peppermint stick hard ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. His mom had picked the raspberry creemee; his stepdad, the classic vanilla-chocolate twist.

Kolby said he'd been an Al's fan since he was at least 8. "We usually come more in the summer," he said.

Like Kolby and his parents, the Seven Days food team is heading out this month before the summer rush to revisit some of our favorite outdoor dining spots around Vermont.

Although Al's is open year-round serving its menu of burgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, haddock sandwiches and fries, the annual April 1 ice cream window opening heralds the busy season at the 75-year-old local landmark.

The fast food spot has a different feel during the summer, when Little Leaguers line up for postgame creemees and parents juggle food and toddlers on the playground behind the picnic tables out back.

Kolby and his parents sat at one of the newer round tables on Al's nicely landscaped front lawn for their main course of cheeseburgers, a Philly cheesesteak and fries. "You can't come to Al's without getting fries," Amanda said.

Those fries are memorably spelled "frys," as any local can tell you — thanks to the marketing savvy of Al's cofounder Genevieve Rusterholz. They received a shout-out when Al's was honored in 2010 with a James Beard Foundation America's Classics Award.

At the time, Alison Cook, the Houston Chronicle's award-winning, longtime restaurant critic, wrote, "The fries boast a dark and crackly exterior. Creamy white potato fluff lurks within. Al's fries are a benchmark and a bulwark against devolution."

What would a Texan know about Vermont "frys"? It turns out that Cook grew up in Chittenden County. For a couple of years, she told Seven Days, "My walk home from school took me past the sacred Al's site."

• Daria Bishop
• From left: Kolby Richardson and Keith and Amanda Bumps

Those who steward the sacred must be careful not to change it too much, as Al's co-owner Shane Bissonette, 38, recognizes. His family bought the legacy business in 1982. While continually investing in the operation — which also boasts unusual staff longevity; grill cook Jimmy McHugh recently retired after 45 years — they have left the core menu largely alone. As Bissonette said, "If it's not broke, don't fix it."

That goes for the fresh-cut, double-fried fries, still cooked old-school in a mix of vegetable oil and beef fat. Hot out of the fryer, the bronzed batons are a truly affordable indulgence, starting at $2.95 for a cup.

The burgers (from $2.95 for a single) are ground fresh, and the hot dogs (from $2.67) boast dark grill stripes under tangy mustard and sharp raw onion.

But my favorite summertime order is a salty-sweet combo meal of fries and a small maple creemee ($3.92).

To celebrate my first visit of the season, I ordered the Maple Madness sundae ($9.74). The massive creemee swirl in a waffle cone was showered with maple sprinkles and crowned with a maple cream sandwich cookie and a tiny pipette of syrup.

There was just one problem: It left me too full to eat my "frys."