Where I’m from (Houston) the term Ice-House refers to an open air beer joint. The kind that is part covered, part out in the open, often with a big garage door opening where out and in meet.
I have heard of Ice-House beer from Miller (Plank Rd. Brewery), but I know it is very much a regional term. My buddy from New Jersey never heard of the term untill he came down here. I think the farther north one gets in the U.S., the less likely that a flimsy shack would be a viable option for a drinking establishment.
Where are drinking jounts known as Ice-Houses exist.
I always thought an icehouse held ice. They had them along the Ohio river, and blocks would be cut from branch streams and floated there for use in the summer. That’s the impression I got. Most are parts of historic estates now.
Where I’m from (Minnesota), ice houses are most definitely flimsy shacks set up for the express purpose of drinking.
Now there are those who say they don’t drink in the ice house but actually fish in the ice house. They say they cut a hole in the floor and through the ice and drop a line and a worm and catch fish!!!
Never heard of an Ice House in Florida. We go to REAL bars, with walls and ceilings and FRONT DOORS. I do not know if it is a regional thing. It will be hard to find someone SOUTH of me. Maybe it is just a Texas thing.
I always heard it was just a slang term, which dated from days when people would keep beer in an actual ice house, and go and sit in the cool air and drink tall, cold, frosty, precious, precious beers…hmmm…gotta go now.
I’ve only ever seen the “ice houses” as mentioned in the OP around Houston.
Here in my unnamed eastern PA location, there’s a joint called the “Ice House” just down the street; they sell beer, but the only way it would be open-air is if someone drove through the front window.