photograph by bruce vanwyngarden
Jenna Abu-Khraybeh serves the “Uncle T’s Nightcap.”
When Jenna Abu-Khraybeh talks about growing up in the Bluff City, her face brightens with the memories. “I remember my mom taking us to Grizzlies games,” she says, “and afterward, we’d wait outside Earnestine & Hazel’s with the doorman while my mom went in to get us soul burgers.
“I’m first-generation,” she says. “My dad is from Lebanon and my mom is from Canada. They both migrated here and met in Memphis and I had this lovely upbringing of diversity.
“A lot of my parents’ friends owned or worked in restaurants, so food service has always been a place of comfort for me, whether it was IHOP or Interim.”
A 2019 graduate of Germantown High School, Abu-Khraybeh has already managed bars at the now-closed Longshot Restaurant and Catherine & Mary’s downtown. Last fall, she came in second in the Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis “Best Bartender” competition, and now she’s the bar manager at the newly opened Bar Limina in the Edge District. She’s obviously a quick study, and good at her chosen profession.
“When I got old enough to where I wanted a car,” she says, “I heard, ‘Get a job,’ from my parents. So I started working at Jimmy John’s in high school. Two years later, when I finished school, I was managing there. I did that for a couple of years, and then a friend, Hannah Daugherty, who was bar manager at Longshot, got me in there to help them reopen after Covid. Hannah and Pablo Mata, who also worked there, taught me how to bartend — style, knowledge, skill, all that stuff. They took me in and showed me the ropes and paved the way for me to start finding something that I really love, something I really want to do.”
The initial impression is fruity but not sweet. It’s smooth, deceptively refreshing, and then the mezcal enters the room and you realize you’re drinking a cocktail with some muscle. It’s a terrific drink.
Abu-Khraybeh worked at Longshot from 2021 until the fall of 2023, before being offered a job at Catherine & Mary’s, where she worked until April of this year.
“I loved Catherine & Mary’s,” she says. “It gets a high volume for a fine-dining restaurant, so I got to master both classic and creative cocktails but also how to deal with a large crowd. They’re good people. It was a tough decision to part ways.”
Which brings Abu-Khraybeh — and us — to Bar Limina, which sits next to Sam Phillips Recording on Madison Avenue in a former tile shop that most recently housed the Inkwell bar.
“Why ‘Bar Limina?’” I ask.
“The definition of limina is ‘threshold; transitional space; somewhere between here and there.’ But basically what [bar owner] Josh Conley wants is to create a ‘damn good cocktail place.’ That’s our premise. We’ll serve small plates, snacks, and charcuterie, but our intention with Bar Limina is to have a slower-paced, more intimate place with really nice, high-quality cocktails.”
“So if I were in the mood for a nice, high-quality cocktail,” I ask, “what would you recommend?”
“I’m going to make you a cocktail called ‘Uncle T’s Nightcap.’ It’s been on every menu I’ve made,” Abu-Khraybeh says. “When I was younger, my stepfather taught me how to make a Negroni, which is the classic ‘three-equal-parts’ cocktail: gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. In my version, I substitute mezcal for the gin.”
“Whoa.”
“Yeah, and I use strawberry-infused Campari, which dials it back a little, and a blanc vermouth, which is a little more citrusy than a standard dry vermouth, and then a good-quality mezcal. Oh, and I also spritz the glass with Peychaud’s Bitters.”
Abu-Khraybeh soon finishes her creation and sets the simple-looking, strawberry-colored drink on the bar in front of me. I take a sip. The initial impression is fruity but not sweet. It’s smooth, deceptively refreshing, and then the mezcal enters the room and you realize you’re drinking a cocktail with some muscle. It’s a terrific drink.
“Well, this is quite good.”
“Thank you,” she says. “I’ve been throwing drinks around for the last few years, since I started at Longshot, and I realized this is the kind of stuff I want to do. People say I’ve never met a stranger — and I have my mom to thank for that — so I enjoy this. There’s something about being able to meet someone on one side of the bar while I’m on the other and giving them a really great experience.”
I’d have to look up who won the Flyer’s “Best Bartender” last year, but as someone who’s sat on the other side of the bar from Jenna Abu-Khraybeh, I can say with confidence that she’s going to be a contender for that title for a long time to come.
Bar Limina is located at 631 Madison Avenue.
