Photograph by Bailey Garrot
After rhythmic clinking and confident shaking, a bartender at Decatur’s Kimball House pours a cocktail over a single, flawless clear cube. Ice is the unsung hero of a fine bar program, its subtle influence often taken for granted. But not by Jeff Banks, Atlanta’s iceman. A former bartender himself, Banks now dedicates his days to his ice company, King Cube. He makes and delivers pristine, oversized, clear-cut cubes to 120 bars and restaurants across the city.
“I have his number saved as ‘Jeff Banks the Ice King’ in my phone,” says Kimball House co-owner and beverage director Miles Macquarrie. “His attention to detail on what I feel is an important part of cocktail culture is inspiring, and I can’t imagine ever going back to the way we used to prepare ice in the past.”
Banks’s extensive background in the restaurant industry began with fast food, but then he moved to restaurants and eventually to a large catering company, which included bartending for the Kentucky Derby and U.S. Open Tennis Championships. He liked the experiences so much that he left his day job of cleaning up crime scenes for shaking and stirring drinks. He helped open a couple of restaurant beverage programs before the opportunity arose to run the one at Decatur’s Brush Sushi Izakaya, and that is where his ice-making skills took shape.
“It was a place where a 150-pound half block of ice would show up and you would have to pull out a chainsaw and break down the whole thing,” says Banks. A couple of times this happened on a Friday evening at 6:30—peak time. “I thought, This needs to be easier; bartenders with chainsaws cutting down ice on the sidewalk is not the way.” After researching and studying techniques, he mastered hand-cutting cubes and diamond shapes. However, this was an involved process for a bartender.
In time, Banks found a way to focus solely on his passion for ice. He had honed business and sales skills working for beverage retailer Savannah Distributing, which he called an invaluable experience. Winning a Bedlam Vodka bartending competition provided the seed money for King Cube, which began with a block maker (a machine using circulated water that creates ice blocks), a chest freezer, and a tiny band saw. He secured his current warehouse space in Doraville in January 2020. Since then, King Cube equipment has evolved significantly, with specially designed block makers, custom saws, and pneumatic systems for increased safety and efficiency. With only two other employees, he’s producing 40 blocks a week, which is roughly 30,000 cubes.
“There is something zen about it for me,” Banks says about creating ice. But that doesn’t come easily. “People say, you’re just making frozen water, how hard is it?” It takes about seven days to make a block of clear ice. He uses directional freezing to slowly freeze purified water from the bottom up while circulation removes impurities and air bubbles. Next come primary cuts—similar to a butcher’s first trimming cuts—and then the ice is cured overnight before receiving secondary cuts. Beyond warehouse temperature, there is timing involved with cutting—too quickly and it shatters. “Our motto is, ‘We don’t do it because it is easy, we do it because we thought it would be easy,’” he says.
Banks has six styles of clear ice, including various sizes of cubes, spheres, and the long rectangular shape named for a Collins glass, and he produces custom branded ice for clients such as the Atlanta Braves and golf club beverage programs. The clarity assists aesthetics, but more importantly clear ice is free of impurities and melts more slowly, diluting a drink less because of density and surface area. Clear ice is de rigueur in cocktail bars where everything matters, even the frozen water, and Banks delivers.
This article appears in our September 2025 issue.
