How can I use iamges rather than icons in razor MVC sidebar

See more:

CSHTML

I cannot find a working example of using images in a sidebar.cshtml instead of the stock icons supplied with the theme bootstrap template

What I have tried:

CSHTML

<a href="#" class="menu-link">
				
								@if (menu["icon"] != null)
								{
									^__i class="@menu["icon"]"__^
								}
								@if (menu["label"] != null)
								{
									@menu["label"]
								}
				
				@menu["text"]
				@if (menuChildren.Length > 0)
				{
								class="caret">
				}
</a>

JSON

{
  "controller": "Analytics",
  "action": "Index",
  "icon": "fa fa-chart-pie",
  "text": "Triple Glazed Units"
},
{
  "controller": "Analytics",
  "action": "Index",
  "icon": "fa fa-chart-pie",
  "text": "Heritage Thin Units"
},
{
  "controller": "Analytics",
  "action": "Index",
  "icon": "fa fa-chart-pie",
  "text": "Fire Rated Units"
},