Summery food and views at Little Coney in Ballard

Summer — or spring for that matter — was just taking too long to arrive. It was time for a mind-over-matter approach.

Behave like it's nice out, and it will be nice out.

So we headed to Ballard's Golden Gardens beach park with a Little Coney pit stop. What could be more summery than that?

Located at the boat launch near the entrance to Golden Gardens, Little Coney has been serving it up since 1957. Current owner Han Ahn has run the place for the past six years.

The menu: Fare doesn't get any more standard than this, with your typical soda-shop array of cheeseburgers ($3.50), fries ($1.99), corn dogs ($1.99), onion rings ($2.74) and slaw ($2.30), with some fish and chips ($6.99) and chowder ($2.50-$3.50) thrown in to acknowledge the Northwest.

What to write home about: That chowder was terrific, steaming hot and a tiny bit salty. The potato-skin-on fries also got a yum, as did the fresh, cabbage-y slaw, which took a little pepper but didn't last long at our table.

What to skip: The fish sandwich. It had the same ordinary bun as the hamburger, but in the burger's delicious sloppy mess of mayo, ketchup and juicy burgerness, the bun wasn't the liability it became on the fish sandwich — which also suffered from some tasteless yellow cheese. The sliced cucumbers were a nice touch, but this fried cod is surely better served as the fish and chips — and you can probably ask for some cukes on the side.

The setting: This is what Little Coney is all about, folks: soaking up the Puget Sound view, watching the sun set behind the Olympics, taking your towering soft-serve ice cream with you as you stroll the Burke-Gilman Trail, past beach fires and sand soccer players in Golden Gardens Park. That's just what we did, and as if on cue, the temperature rose, the sun shone brightly and I took off my windbreaker. See? Mind over matter.

Summing up: Including the don't-even-think-about-skipping ice-cream cones ($2.75 each), our tab came to $30.05. And if, as I licked my soft-serve, I shivered a bit, I'll never tell.

Raina Wagner: 206-464-8147 or rwagner@seattletimes.com