Tribute
Raising the bar on the Halifax waterfront
BY LAURA OAKLEY
PHOTOS MICHELLE DOUCETTE
The last time I ate Colin Bebbington’s food was at a pop-up restaurant inside an antique store near Peggy’s Cove. It’s still one of the weirdest and most interesting settings I’ve ever dined in. The chef operated Scotia Heritage Foods after returning from London, England, during the first wave of the pandemic lockdown. He ran pop-ups at various locations but with his sights set on a permanent brick-and-mortar when the right opportunity presented itself. A sleek new condo building—The Cunard—proved to be just that, offering harbour views and a home in what seems to be a new neighbourhood of restaurants on the southern end of the waterfront.
Based on my pop-up experience, Bebbington’s impressive resume, and the fact that he spent four months in Bologna, Italy, learning pasta-making at a renowned school, I knew that Tribute would be something special. According to the chef, Tribute doesn’t have a theme. “No machine for pasta. That’s the only rule,” says Bebbington. “Because my teachers would kill me.” Pasta is a significant part of what they do at Tribute. There is one dedicated pasta maker that spends hours in prep every day they are open, but there is also a wood-fired grill. The menu is seasonally based, which means taking cues from vegetables and then figuring out proteins, both of which Tribute predominantly prepares on the wood-fired grill.
Having only opened this past November, Tribute hasn’t even seen a summer season yet. My visit on a mid-spring evening featured a menu in the first phases of some seasonal changes. The 48-seat restaurant is a single room with an open kitchen, the chefs emanating energy and efficiency, entertaining diners while setting an exciting tone for the entire room. “Someone can't really come in here without me seeing them somewhere,” says Bebbington. The layout facilitates a connection between the chefs and the customers. (I enjoyed seeing one chef stoke the fire underneath the grill, which takes technique to ensure consistent heat for cooking.)
Right off the bat, the service is phenomenal, with a “fine dining” level of attention (my napkin was refolded for me when I got back from the washroom). The interior isn’t fussy, though; it’s simplistic, with a lot of clean lines and light oak wood contrasted with black elements. The choice makes sense since the open kitchen is the primary visual element in the space; the other surroundings need to be calm and smooth.
I start with an aperitivo—the woodfire negroni. The drink tastes like a classic Negroni with a side of campfire, thanks to its woodfire-smoked orange. It’s a clever take on my favourite cocktail. We decided to split the tasting menu but with a few extras added at Bebbington’s discretion. Typically, the tasting menu is four courses, but I have a feeling I’m going to get plenty more than that.
The carrot salad arrives first. Sous vide carrots in olive oil and thyme, carrot dressing, sunflower seeds, sprouts, and served with horseradish, pickled quail egg yolk, and endive. “One of the first dishes I served at an older restaurant. Made me love thought-out approaches to vegetables,” says Bebbington. “A tribute to my time at Davies and Brook in London.” The dish is reminiscent of an elegant, creamy coleslaw starring carrots. You mix a rich quail's egg yolk with the shredded carrot, creating a well-balanced flavour thanks to the horseradish and the crunch of the sunflower seeds. I very much enjoy it.
Next is the tuna, Bebbington’s take on tonnato Vitello, an Italian dish typically made with cold, sliced veal covered in creamy tuna sauce. This one flips the ingredients—vibrantly pink slices of raw tuna on a bed of bone marrow aioli. Quinoa salad, arugula, nasturtium flowers, and pickled fennel accompany it. The silky tuna is complemented nicely with the crunchy quinoa, and the aioli is robust and packed with umami flavour. Unsurprisingly, it’s a standout dish for me (obsessed with tuna).
Why try one pasta dish when you can try four? Four pasta dishes arrive at the table, so I get my serious eating face on. Tortelli di Pinoli is a new pasta on the menu crafted from mushrooms, pesto, and balsamic vinegar. Ramp and mushroom pasta doughs are filled with mushrooms and pine nuts and come dressed in a sauce of parmesan stock, butter, pesto, and pine nuts and finished with 12-year-old balsamic from Italy. The filling is earthy, luscious, and rich; it turns out that mushrooms and pine nuts are an ideal match. Balanzoni is a large green tortellini-type pasta from Bologna (all the pasta styles on the menu are, understandably, from this region). Here, it’s filled with pork sausage and smothered in a decadent sage cream sauce. It arrives generously topped with Parmigiano and tastes utterly indulgent.
The lasagna verde is “my teacher Alessandra Spisni’s family recipe from Bologna,” says Bebbington. A very traditional way of making lasagna in this region: spinach dough rolled paper thin, layered with Spisni’s ragu, béchamel, and lots of Parmigiano cheese on top. (You may recognize Spisni’s name from the Chef’s Table: Noodles episode.) This lasagna truly melts in your mouth. Its delicate sheets of pasta with crisp edges provide a satisfying texture as well. I could eat this for every meal for the rest of my life.
It’s the signature pasta, cappelletti di Caffè, that makes an impression. A ring-shaped stuffed pasta that is said to resemble a hat, which is capello in Italian. These cappelletti are strikingly dark, made from a coffee pasta dough filled with Taleggio, mascarpone, and Asiago cheeses. The sauce consists of parmesan stock, Calabrian chillies, and prosciutto butter. The coffee adds bitterness, but it is nicely balanced by the sweet-ish sauce and umami mushrooms, with a touch of heat from the chillies. The server who drops off the dish with its delicately and masterfully folded cappelletti aptly calls it "edible origami."
Bebbington says not having a theme for Tribute is intentional. “I don't think a restaurant has to be defined by a cuisine anymore,” he says. “We can put whatever we want on the menu.” Although Bolognese pasta takes up considerable space, the rest of the items are varied. For example, the Tuk Tuk fried chicken is a nod to a friend of Bebbington's who has a Sri Lankan restaurant in Kentucky. “Tuk tuk chicken is a street food [in Sri Lanka],” says Bebbington. “We serve with yellow curry, Malay pickles, and seeni sambol (both condiments from that area).” The yellow curry sauce comes with roasted squash and grilled rapini on top, and a square of crisped rice serves as a bed for juicy fried chicken with a very thick, airy breading. The curry has a sweet-and-sour vibe that I love, and the deep flavour of the squash is incredible. The result is an out-of-the-ordinary fried chicken dish.
The tenderloin dish also has a peculiar spin. The PEI beef is seared to perfection (rare), sliced, and placed on a pool of creamy steak au poivre sauce. But instead of the typical potato side, there’s a savoury mushroom porridge topped with crunchy savoury granola drizzled with mushroom caramel. More roasted squash and rapini round out the dish, which is a wonderfully novel take on steak au poivre.
The dessert game at Tribute is unpretentious. The sweet potato doughnut is “inspired by one of my favourite chefs, Sean Brock from the [Southern] USA,” says Bebbington. It sits in a ring of crème cheese custard with zesty orange notes atop a bed of caramelized apples—all on a puddle of bourbon caramel. It’s sprinkled with maple toffee granola, and the deep, savoury notes of the sweet potato shine through. The combination of flavours and textures works for me, and the acid in the orange balances the sweetness. “Our signature dessert, inspired by my time in Chicago. I discovered this from White Castle,” says Bebbington of the gooey butter cake. “A St. Louis version of a cheesecake, and observed with preserved blueberries and white chocolate crunchies.” It comes in a half-moon shape covered in powdered sugar and certainly is warm, gooey, and rich—the “crunchies” are the perfect complement to each bite.
Throughout my tasting menu experience, I enjoyed impeccably chosen wine pairings. If you opt for the tasting menu, the pairings are a wise upgrade. The wine list at Tribute is formidable, and the signature cocktails are well-thought-out and diverse. While Tribute would make a great dining experience for a special occasion, the atmosphere lends itself well to both mid-range dining and a splurge. In the short time it has been open, Bebbington has already earned a loyal customer base.
“We have a wood fire grill, and we make pasta like no one else, and we have fun,” says Bebbington. This freedom is working for the creative minds at Tribute, and I'm eager to see what they accomplish over the summer months.
Tribute is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, starting at 5 p.m. You can find the restaurant at 1341 Lower Water Street.
Tribute
1341 Lower Water St unit 121, Halifax
Restaurant $$$-$$$$ D
tributerestaurant.ca
