Owner
Cara Tobin
Restaurateur
- Discipline
- Owner
- Based in
- Burlington, Vermont, United States
i. Biography
In Burlington, Vermont, Cara Tobin’s work gathers around Eastern Mediterranean food and Middle Eastern flavors and hospitality. At The Grey Jay, where she is chef and co-owner, the defining material is not a single product but a culinary language carried through her cooking, ownership, and sense of welcome.
The Estate
Two Burlington roles define Tobin’s place in Vermont hospitality. She is Executive Chef/owner of Honey Road Restaurant and chef and co-owner of The Grey Jay, positions that put her in both the kitchen and the ownership structure of the city’s dining culture. Before those Burlington chapters, Tobin worked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as chef de cuisine at Oleana from 2012 to 2016. The dated stretch matters for the shape of her career: four years in a named kitchen role before the awards attention that later followed her work in Vermont. The geography is compact but precise. Cambridge marks the earlier professional post in her public résumé; Burlington is where her chef-owner identity is named through two venues and a run of James Beard Award recognition.
In the Cellar
The through-line is Eastern Mediterranean food. Rather than being defined only by a title, Tobin’s specialty is stated through flavor and reception: Middle Eastern flavors and hospitality. That pairing gives her work a double register. It describes what reaches the plate, and it also describes how a guest is meant to be received. In a chef-owner’s practice, those two forms of labor are bound together: the food has to carry its point of view, and the room has to make that point of view feel legible. Her past role as chef de cuisine gives the career a kitchen-rooted center, while her Burlington ownership roles add responsibility beyond the stove. The arc runs from a named culinary post in Cambridge into chef/owner and co-owner work in Vermont, without losing the stated focus on Eastern Mediterranean cooking and Middle Eastern hospitality.
The Bottlings
Awards have followed Tobin’s Burlington work across several years. In 2017, she was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Northeast for Honey Road. That early recognition placed her Vermont cooking in a regional field that spans the northeastern United States. In 2024, she became a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Northeast, again for her work at the restaurant. The move from semifinalist to finalist marks a second, later point of recognition in the same regional category. In 2025, Tobin was a James Beard Award nominee for Outstanding Restaurateur for Honey Road and Gray Jay in Burlington. That honor shifted the frame from chef category to restaurateur category, recognizing the ownership and hospitality side of her work as well as the cooking associated with her name. Taken together, the named honors trace a public arc from 2017 to 2025: Best Chef: Northeast recognition tied to one Burlington venue, followed by Outstanding Restaurateur recognition tied to two. The awards do not replace the craft; they point back to the same center of gravity, Eastern Mediterranean food shaped by Middle Eastern flavors and hospitality.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Cara
Where does Cara Tobin work?
Cara Tobin works in Burlington, Vermont, as Executive Chef/owner of Honey Road Restaurant and chef and co-owner of The Grey Jay.
What style or method defines Cara Tobin's work?
Eastern Mediterranean food, Middle Eastern flavors, and hospitality define Cara Tobin’s work.
