Andersonville Cursed Corner -- Next Victim?

Hey Guys...

Anyone know what's going into the old space at the corner of Foster and Clark? Recently the home to not very successful "diner"? Don't know much but when I was on my way home from the airport the other day I saw banners and a sign that said something about 24 hour crepes.

Any news? Gossip? Speculation?

I really need my eyes checked! lmao I thought your post read 24 hour corpse! sorry

i saw the 24 hour crepes sign too. perhaps i'm reading the tea leaves incredibly incorrectly, but i see that idea (at least for that prime corner) as a flop waiting to happen. maybe up the block in a smaller place, but not on the corner. i suspect that the former resident might have made it had they had even remotely decent hours of operation; so many times that i went by the place (weekend mornings, early weekday evenings, ...), they were closed.

I still miss the Olive Tree that used to be there. The service was always spotty but the food was tasty.

I thought that the cafe across on the street, on Foster, served crepes when they first opened? I'm not sure if they still do or not.

I drove by this place this morning and the sign said "Crepes all day" I was in a moving car so I couldn't look all that closely, but I didn't see anything about 24 hr. crepes.

Ooh, was the deceased place in that space Corner Grille? I never wrote more than a passing comment on it, but that was one of the most attitude-ridden, crappy couldn't-care-less service experiences of my life. I wished them all the ill in the world, and can only express my sorrow that it took so long.

Maybe someday my bad Andersonville juju will claim Wooden Spoon, too.

Yes, that space was occupied by the Corner Grill. I had many good experiences there. Casual food, well prepared (particularly the burgers) at very reasonable prices. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience.

Just found a few errands that needed running so I could sort this out. The place has a fuchsia neon sign reading ICOSIUM KAFE (and painted beneath it, "Un Kafe Algerois" [sic]. It also advertises a website. A brief excursion on the internet leads us to arab.net which teaches us that "Algiers is the site of Icosium, a legendary city founded by 20 companions of the mythical hero Hercules."

A quick check of the website reveals the mother ship at 2433 North Clark, together with a picture. The site also provides a menu focusing, not surprisingly on crepes, both sweet and savory. As to the Algerian connection, you may choose to have merguez (described as Algerian lamb sausage) with any crepe (as well as other meats). There is a breakfast menu as well, which offers a Boufarik fruit salad (Boufarik, Google informs, is the name of a largely agricultural city in Algeria but the menu does not describe the salad other than as containing orange slices and "mixed fruits"). Finally, there is a drinks menu, offering sides and extras. But nothing else Algerian. (Oh, and the homepage says to watch for the opening of its new Andersonville location ("coming soon").

If their French is any indication, I'm not sure how soon we'll be checking it out. Algerien, sure. Algerienne, sure. But Algerois?** My French isn't what it might be, but this doesn't make sense in my little book. (I rely on wise heads, which I know will post ere long.) True Algerian cuisine would be worth a special trip; but for two items only I wonder why it advertises itself as Algerian.

**N.B. My thanks to sgfoxe (below): she appears to be entirely correct (although it may simply be that my French is too poor). A few minutes Googling leaves me in no doubt that I err. My apologies.

Icosium Kafe
5200 N. Clark Street
(773) 271-5233
The following hours are listed on the website; HOWEVER, other sites list other hours and I have not yet had a chance to confirm these. You may wish to call before you go.
M - Th 10am-9pm
Fri 10am-10pm
Sat 9am-10pm
Sun 9am-9pm

these are the same people who run the Coffee and Crepe place on Clark just north of Fullerton and as an Andersonville resident and lover of crepes, I am thrilled it is coming to our neighborhood. At their original location the crepes have always been satisfying and the service kind and gracious. I don't drink coffee so I can't speak to that but if it is anything like the other spot, it is going to be a lovely place to frequent. (And they did the same confusing three name thing at the last place . . . )

bjt

I like Camus -- and remember every colonial locale develops its own patois Algerois may well be the local term for les natifs

hope they have a sign "Merseault ate here"

SGFoxe wrote:I like Camus -- and remember every colonial locale develops its own patois Algerois may well be the local term for les natifs

hope they have a sign "Merseault ate here"

Then that would be a "local term/spelling", too. (Sorry, it's "Meursault")

Meursault

Meursault -- I read The Stranger, apparently you didn't

I've had nothing but good meals at the location on Clark Street, and I'm excited they're coming to Andersonville.

I just spoke to the very charming owner ("Lady," he said, "what are you doing working so late?"), who told me that Icosium is slated to open next week. They'll be offering 40 types of crepes and a wide selection of teas, and there will be an emphasis on organic ingredients. Hope they'll break the curse.

Crepes are good food. Are they going to sell wine like they do in Paris and make it a late night hang out?

My husband and I ate at Icosium tonight. We found the restaurant's ambiance be very pleasant; I was never in the previous establishment, so I can't tell if the fixtures have changed, but the new owners had added an Algerian flair with carpets, wall hangings, beaded lamps, and dance music. The staff was attentive and fast, and very friendly.

I had the Palace Crepe, which contained roasted peppers, arugula, goat cheese, caramelized onion, roma tomatoes, pine nuts, roasted garlic and baby spinach. I added lamb merguaz.The crepe was a bit thicker than the French crepes I've had, but it was tender and well stuffed. All the ingredients were fresh and full flavored.

My husband had the Carthage Crepe, which contained bell peppers, roma tomotoes, feta cheese, scallions, basil, organic spring mix and walnuts. He also added the lamb. He commented: "It's very good and there are so many ingredients, each bite is very different!"

The crepes came with soup. The choices were chicken or vegetable. We both had chicken--it was clearly homemade and quite good. Shredded white meat chicken, good broth, and sprinkled with a green garnish--it might have been basil, I'm not sure. The broth needed a bit more salt, which made me think it also might be home-made--store bought stock is always so salty!

For dessert we had the nutella banana crepe which was excellent. There was a good balance between the nutella and banana, so neither overwhelmed the other, and the crepe was garnished with almonds, baby banana slices, whipped cream and ice cream. It had just the right amount of everything--not too goopy, not too sweet. We did not feel as though we were in danger of slipping into a sugar coma when we were done!

They also have various salads, a full range of coffee and juices, and you can construct your own crepe if you don't like the selections they've listed.

My only caveat, and it's a small one that wouldn't keep me from going back, is that I am not one hundred percent sure that the crepes were made when we ordered them. The dessert crepe in particular came out of the kitchen very quickly and was only warm. I didn't think that this detracted from the crepes that much--maybe because they weren't as thin as traditional crepes which get rubbery when they are allowed to cool and are then reheated. But some people might find this off-putting. Though, I didn't ask the server for confirmation so I can't state this with absolute certainty.


Over all, we found the experience to be quite pleasant and I would definitely go back. It's nice to have a low-key place to eat in Andersonville, particularly at night. The dinner crepes were all in the $8.50 range, with meat adding $2.99. So while that may not count as super-cheap, it felt like a good value for Andersonville.

I hope the are able to break the Spell of the Cursed Corner!

Icosium Kafe
5200 N. Clark
773-271-5233

Sun-Friday, 9-9
Sat: 9-10

I ate at Icosium Saturday night with a group of friends. Between the six of us, we only ordered two different crepes, both of which the poster above already described: the Carthage and the Palace crepes. We all enjoyed them. The crepes are thicker than the breakfast crepes I've had in the past, but they were all stuffed with ingredients and everything tasted very good. The only thing I would say was that they weren't very...juicy, which might just be the way they're supposed to be. I'm just used to having sauces, I guess.

We all had the vegetable soup, which was squash-like and with a big leaf of mint in each cup. VERY good.

We also split a Nutella crepe for dessert, and two of us had turkish coffee. The Nutella crepe was very good (but it's hard to go wrong with Nutella!) and came drizzled with chocolate sauce and with a scoop of ice cream on the side. The turkish coffee takes a bit to make, but comes in little espresso-sized cups along with a pot with the rest of the coffee. We only liked the first cup - after that, the coffee got gritty.

Overall, Icosium made a great place for a quick dinner (like mentioned by the above poster, the crepes came out pretty fast) where everyone could find something they liked (they don't have 40 crepes as mentioned earlier, but do have several delicious-sounding suggestions) and the price was good.