In some ways it's the most traditional event imaginable: a corned-beef-and-cabbage dinner to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. But its venue, Wareham's iconic roadside fried-food-and-ice-cream stand Kool Kone, demonstrates that a seasonal restaurant in Wareham is no longer synonymous with spending Memorial through Labor Day behind a fryolator.

"We do everything here now," said Kool Kone owner Tom Strom. "We've started serving more and more fancy stuff. More a variety of food than just the fried clams."

Several things have changed at Kool Kone since Strom bought the business six years ago.  A stove-top and oven adds baked dishes to the menu. Picnic tables were moved outside, and Strom said he hoped that the grass he planted last year will come up and provide his, and his patrons', children with a soft place to play.

"We definitely have more families come in and eat now," said Strom. "We used to have a lot of parents who'd come and buy their kids hot dogs and then go home and cook themselves something [healthier] for dinner - they said they couldn't eat anything on the menu."

Now, he said patrons are coming later and later in the year.

And Strom hopes that turning St. Patrick's Day into an annual event will bring the crowds earlier in the season as well. He has ordered 600 pounds of corned beef and cabbage - at least twice as much as last year when the restaurant ran out of food around 7 p.m. And Buddy Stuart, who is helping Strom fix winter storm damage on the restaurant, said people have already stopped by.

"It just needs the open sign," he said.