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Muddy Waters, a southern-style restaurant at 2 Oswego St. in Baldwinsville, is closing Jan. 8 and will reopen as Mangia Italian Grill.

BALDWINSVILLE, NY -- The southern-influenced menu at Muddy Waters Kitchen and Bar is giving way this month to a new concept and name: It's becoming Mangia Italian Grill.

Muddy Waters, 2 Oswego St. in Baldwinsville, will close Sunday and reopen Jan.13 as Mangia Italian Grill.

The restaurant at 2 Oswego St., beneath Sammy Malone's and overlooking the Seneca River, will close Sunday, Jan. 8 and reopen with its new name and menu on Jan. 13, according to owner Tom Taylor.

Mangia (the name means "eat" in Italian) will offer a casual menu of pizzas and sandwiches (many with an Italian theme), plus main dishes featuring steak, seafood, chicken, veal and pastas. See the menu. Mangia will continue to offer live music, as Muddy Waters did.

Taylor plans to look for a new location to reopen Muddy Waters, possibly in downtown Syracuse. After announcing the change on Facebook, he told commenters there he believes Muddy Waters is a better fit closer to the county's population center.

"We need to be in a more urban setting, centrally located with foot traffic, where we are 15-20 minutes or less from most people in CNY," Taylor wrote on Facebook.

Muddy Waters opened in 2014, featuring Louisiana and New Orleans dishes, seafood and barbecue. Taylor also owns Sammy Malone's, upstairs from Muddy Waters, which bills itself as an upscale pub and features one of Central New York's best craft beer selections.

"We would like to thank everyone for their patronage to Muddy Waters and hope you'll try our new concept Mangia," Taylor wrote in his Facebook post Thursday. Muddy Waters gift cards will be honored at Mangia, he said.

Don Cazentre writes about food, beverages, restaurants and bars for syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact him by email, on Twitter, at Google+ or via Facebook.