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Icosium Kafe Closes in Andersonville: 'I'm Done with Crepes,' Owner Says

By Adeshina Emmanuel | January 2, 2014 9:55am
 The Algerian creperie had been open for eight years before closing at the end of December.
Icosium Closed
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ANDERSONVILLE — An Algerian creperie and teahouse that claimed to have the best crepes in Chicago is closed after eight years in Andersonville.

"I'm done with crepes," reads a handwritten message posted over the weekend on the doors of the Icosium Kafé, 5200 N. Clark St., signed by the restaurant's chef and owner Belkacem El Metennani.

The sign thanks customers for "great years," in Andersonville. The affordable, vegetarian-friendly restaurant had more than 20 types of crepes, both sweet and savory, and offered a cozy atmosphere with beaded lamps, brass, pottery and tapestries throughout.

"Icosium Kafé is authentic Algerian, it's a unique concept, it's very healthy, it's a neighborhood restaurant, very casual, inexpensive," Metennani said while describing his restaurant on WTTW-Channel 11 when the station profiled it a few years ago.

Icosium was an ancient city that's now part of modern-day Algiers, in Algeria, a French colony in Africa from 1834 until its independence in 1962.

Metennani is a native of the Icosium region.

It isn't clear why his restaurant shuttered.

Icosium's phone number is disconnected, and Metennani wasn't immediately reachable for comment.  The sign on the door of his restaurant says "C.U. Soon."

There was also an Icosium location in Lincoln Park, but it closed in 2011, citing slow business, according to Eater Chicago.