Colin Bebbington is a bubbling pot of stories. Ask him to expound on the subtleties of Bolognese pasta or the kitchens he’s worked in from London to Chicago to Napa, and he’ll happily hold court for long enough to fully, undeniably convince you: The man is obsessed with food. Loves everything about it, from brioche to bratwurst to broccoli. In Tribute, the 34-year-old Halifax chef’s first fine-dining restaurant, that love and attention to detail is everywhere, from the rotating menu of locally-sourced dishes to the tidy stacks of wood used to stoke the kitchen’s open-flame oven and grill. One month on from its opening in the new Cunard building on the Halifax Waterfront, that obsession is paying off. Business is brisk, Bebbington says, speaking with The Coast on a winter morning at the restaurant.
“I don’t think I could have asked for a better start,” he adds.
And to hear him tell it, it’s only the beginning.
A nod to the past
Tribute’s opening has been a long time coming for Bebbington. Three years since returning home with a slew of Michelin-starred stints on his resume, the wiry, tattooed chef has earned a following for his popular pop-up kitchens, hosting four-course dinners everywhere from the back of Ratinaud to Indian Harbour to a divinity school on the Northwest Arm. Bebbington’s newest venture—his first permanent restaurant—is a nod to each of those stops along the road.
“That’s sort of what this whole place is: Little stories,” Bebbington says.
The open-flame grill is a throwback to Spiaggia, the Michigan Avenue mainstay where Barack Obama once celebrated his presidential election win and Bebbington cooked under Top Chef winner Joe Flamm. The falafel—served with beets, tzatziki and quinoa—is a recipe Bebbington pulled from three-Michelin-starred chef Daniel Humm, whom he worked for at Davies and Brook in London. (“His falafel recipe is unmatched,” Bebbington tells The Coast.) Even the chimichurri, served with Tribute’s Bistecca alla Fiorentina—Bebbington’s spin on steak and potatoes—comes with a story: He picked it up from Brazilian chef Almir da Fonseca, a mentor at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, California.
“The chimichurri in North America is not what chimichurri is in South America,” he says. “Down there, they have like 40 to 50 different chimichurris that are all based on one herb, one citrus or various particular ingredients to highlight them. So we have three on that plate to show the difference.”
From Bologna to the boardwalk
Bebbington’s influences are sprinkled throughout the entire menu. But what really gets him talking, what kicks his obsession into high gear, is the pasta. So devoted is Bebbington to its delicate finish that the chef swears there’s “only one flour in the city” he’ll buy for it. Don’t ask which one or where.
“A thicker dough can still become tender, still al dente, but not be too much for you to handle,” he explains.
Blame Bologna, if you will, for Bebbington’s obsession: In 2023, he spent three months in Italy, learning from Alessandra and Stefania Spisni, a mother-daughter duo who taught him how to hand-roll and shape his own tortelloni (a pasta similar to, but different from tortellini), starting with flour, eggs and a rolling pin. All of Tribute’s pastas—most of which are stuffed, ranging from cappelletti to balanzoni to shiitake and squash triangoli—follow the same procedures.
“There’s no machines,” Bebbington says. “And it really changes the molecular style of the pasta. It’s done in a way where you try to get as many air bubbles into your dough when you roll it, whereas the machine just kind of forces them out.”
Working by hand “changes everything,” he adds. “It gives you an extra stretch or pull to the dough. So when you’re filling them with stuff, you can get twice or three times as much filling in there as you would with a machine-rolled pasta.
“And I mean, if you’re gonna have a filled pasta, I think it should be a filled pasta.”
“There’s just so many interesting cuisines out there”
Bebbington isn’t afraid to experiment with his dishes. At his first pop-up restaurant in Peggys Cove, he used nasturtium—a flowery, edible plant native to South and Central America—to spruce up a tuna and watermelon crudo, served over a bed of quinoa. He’s paired purple potatoes and chimichurri with beef short rib. His next planned falafel dish will be “very Asian forward,” Bebbington says, using tofu instead of chickpeas for the hummus and adding coriander seed for a nuttier finish. Tribute’s current menu ranges from celery root and smoked bacon soup to pork belly and chicken with kimchi and coconut rice.
If fine dining was a smaller culinary sandbox in decades past, Bebbington sees a world of possibilities in its future.
“Growing up and [studying] people older than me who did this, it was very French heavy,” he says. “Now, I feel like the rest of the world is getting discovered so much more. There’s just so many interesting cuisines out there.”
In launching Tribute, Bebbington has taken the bold step of working with an open kitchen. Take a seat at the bar, and you’ll see the flames leaping from the wood-fired grill mere feet away. Nothing is behind closed doors.
“As soon as the dining room’s full, it gets a little wild,” he says.
In other high-stress kitchens, that could be a recipe for chaos. (Cue every mental image you’ve had of Gordon Ramsay from Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares.) Bebbington acknowledges a “full team effort” in keeping things running smoothly and quarrel-free.
“The culture here is probably the most important aspect to me,” he says. “I’ve worked with some real assholes, and you put one of them in the kitchen—regardless of how well they can cook—it really throws off everyone’s day.”
Late-night menu, patio on the way
Tribute is open for dinner from Wednesday through Sunday, starting at 5pm. More changes are coming soon. Next summer, Bebbington expects there will be a patio on the Halifax Waterfront—though it won’t offer the same menu as what’s inside.
“I mean, we get into edible flowers and garnishes, and wanting to make dishes look [and taste] a certain way,” he says, “and with the wind and stuff like that, I can’t have someone in here get a plate of food and someone outside get a different plate of [the same] food.”
Starting this Friday, the restaurant will also introduce late-night service after dinner ends at 10pm. The menu will include a truffle grilled cheese smash burger, Bebbington’s mother’s egg rolls and any pasta that’s still available—“and falafels,” he adds, “because they’re good and we can stay ahead on those a bit.”
Bebbington expects the kitchen will close around midnight, and the dining room will stay open slightly longer:
“I don’t want to get into being a 2am place, just because that’s too much on the team. But we’ll push it a bit as long as guests are still coming in and people are still having fun.”
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This article appears in Dec 1-18, 2024.