A new restaurant called Ms. Icey's Kitchen & Bar is opening in the former Mason Tavern restaurant space on Clairmont Road. Mason Tavern closed last October after a three year run. Although work seems to have quietly started weeks ago, it was earlier this week that a ToNeTo Atlanta reader indicated that exterior signage was going up at the restaurant.
As of now, the restaurant has only a limited website with plenty of pictures of people posing at the restaurant, but no indication as to the style of food that will be offered.
The restaurant, being opened by Sim Walker, is named for his grandmother, Icelyn Walker. The website seems to suggest that Ms. Icey was also known as "The Graffiti Grandma," with plenty of new graffiti added to the interior of the restuarant. Walker, whose mother is a Kingston, Jamaica native, opened his first Atlanta area restaurant, Negril Village, on North Avenue in Midtown in 2014. The restaurant, which features Caribbean cuisine, is the sibling of the New York area restaurant by the same name.
We called Negril Village in Atlanta inquiring about the expected opening of Ms. Icey's and the cuisine it would feature. A gentleman who seemed to be a manager refused to answer either question.
Sim Walker's Instagram seems to shed light on the menu with photos of a salad and blackened chicken pasta with the hashtag, "comfortfood."
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| "Leaked" photo of the Blackened Chicken Pasta |
As for the opening, the website indicates: "Soon Come Febuary 2018."
Ms. Icey's Kitchen & Bar was registered October 25, 2017 with Georgia's Secretary of State's office and a Facebook page was set up November 13, 2017.
In addition to Mason Tavern, the list of former restaurants that occupied the Emory area restaurant space include an Ethiopian bar/lounge/restaurant called Moya, which lasted the longest of the recent concepts a few years ago. Subsequent concepts in the restaurant space have included Selam, Nest and Scoreboards. The space was reportedly the original home of Athens Pizza.
Other restaurants in the center include Villagio Gastro Italian, Pyng Ho, Community Q, Mint2 Thai Sushi and the most recent opening, Janet's Kitchen, a Filipino restaurant.
Are you excited for the opening of Ms. Icey's? Have you been to Negril Village? Whay do you think so many restaurants have failed in this specific space?
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