Executive chef Nate Henssler is keeping Amelia Gene’s restaurant as fresh and innovative as the dishes on his menu.
Take the Derenburger cheeseburger, which Henssler added about a month ago to the menu at the restaurant at 255 South Front Street, adjacent to the Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis hotel. The burger, named after their pastry chef Jessi Derenburger, is available only at the bar after 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It fits in perfectly with Henssler’s concept for Amelia Gene’s, which he describes as “a modern American chef-driven restaurant.”
Henssler, who butchers the meat, uses the “chain,” a piece of meat on the side of the tenderloins used for their prime filet mignon. He also uses the trimmings from their short ribs.
Jessica Henssler, Nate’s wife as well as the restaurant’s general manager, suggested they do a bar burger. “Jessica actually had the idea of doing some kind of a secret bar menu item, to try and drive some business toward the end of the night.”
Since by 9 p.m. they “still get a good amount of bar traffic,” they wondered how to get guests “to enjoy some food while they’re here and utilize some product. So, we took the short ribs and this tenderloin and tinkered with it to make a blend.”
They also tinkered with different cheeses on their cheese cart, but decided to use American cheese on the cheeseburger. In addition to caramelized onions, they “dress the bun with a garlic mayonnaise, spicy pickled yellow peppers, and then it’s served with hand-cut fries.”
The fries are made in-house using twice-cooked potatoes.
Derenburger makes the sesame seed brioche hamburger buns for the cheeseburgers, which sell for $25. “It’s a 10-ounce burger, so it’s substantial.”
They’re not on the menu, so it’s up to the server and the bartender — as well as customers who’ve tried them — to spread the word about the hamburgers. “We make 10 on Friday and 10 on Saturday. And we’re selling out.”
Henssler is also changing his Thursday night five-course tasting menu almost weekly. “We started off in the summertime and it was vegetarian. And dishes changed every week. We started adding some proteins to the menu.”
The price for the Thursday night special has gone from $50 to $60, but, Nate says, “It’s still an incredible deal.”
For an additional $30, diners are served wine that pairs with each course.
“Sometimes the last course is a cocktail,” Henssler adds.
This week’s special will include Nate’s 30-layer lasagna, which includes layers of béchamel as well as Bolognese made with scraps from the tenderloins and short ribs. He probably will include monkfish, which recently was added to the menu and has been very popular.
As for the regular menu, Nate says part of it changes monthly. “We change at least one or two items. As you see a new menu go on, another menu item comes off.”
His Rohan duck dish is one item that hasn’t left the menu since Nate added it. “It’s still one of our four top sellers.”
The crispy duck dish, which Henssler calls “a play on duck à l’orange,” takes five days to produce. As he said in a 2023 Memphis Flyer interview, “The legs we cure in a salt and sugar mix with soy spices. And we cure that for a day, cooking it in its own fat. Confit.”
The dish includes butter, garlic, shallots, and Belgian endive. And, he says, “It’s served with the same sauce we make from the duck bones with orange puree and kumquats preserved in honey.”
On a slow night, they might sell four or five Rohan ducks, Nate says. On a Friday and Saturday night, 20. And, he adds, that dish takes about 45 minutes to prepare from when the order comes in until it gets to the table.
Amelia Gene’s closed for two weeks during a traditionally slow period last August to “save labor and give the staff a chance to have some time off. “I’ve been going seven days a week for a year and a half.”
He and his wife spent about two weeks in Chile on a trip that included Santiago and Patagonia. “We visited some wineries and ate some amazing food.”
And “for sure” he added some Chilean items to the Thursday night five-course menu after they returned, Nate says. Since its not king crab season, he’s waiting for his vendor to get some Chilean king crab. “They’re sourcing it for me right now.”
The Hensslers are currently talking about doing a “pastry cart takeover” of their cheese cart for the holiday season. Also, he says, “We’re getting a lot of requests for whole carrot cake and whole chocolate cakes.”
Since his wife came on as general manager last June, private and semi-private events at Amelia Gene’s are picking up, Nate says. “She is very good at what she does.”
As for a husband and wife working together, Nate says that type of relationship “works best when it’s all about communication. Like a marriage.”
And, he adds, “If something goes wrong, it’s usually my fault.”
Henssler, who grew up in New Hampshire, has worked at top restaurants in Las Vegas and Chicago. He moved to Memphis in 2022. He’s also a managing partner in the Carlisle Restaurant Group.