Tony Migliarese (DOPO, Bar Rocca, Pizzaface): Building a Block
The building came down in August 2024. D.O.P., the restaurant Tony Migliarese had turned into a three-time Canada's 100 Best honouree, was gone. Not because of debt. Not because of a lease dispute. The building was demolished.
Most owners would have reopened the same restaurant in a new space. Migliarese did something different. He opened five.
A Pizza Pop-Up That Started Everything
Migliarese's parents ran an Italian restaurant in Ontario for 20 years. He grew up in that world, watching his father work the room and his mother work the kitchen. When he moved to Calgary about 15 years ago, restaurants weren't a question of "if" but "when."
The "when" started small. A Sunday night pizza pop-up at Von Der Fels, a well-known Calgary restaurant. Then he moved the concept into Community Natural Foods, taking over part of the store's former cafeteria and turning it into a pizza counter. That was Pizzaface, and it worked. The spot is now the only pizzeria in the Prairies to crack Canada's Top 10 Pizzerias list.
Around the same time, Migliarese opened D.O.P. The name stood for Denominazione di Origine Protetta, the Italian certification for traditional regional products. The food matched the name: family recipes, close-quarters dining, the feeling of eating at someone's grandmother's table. It landed on Canada's 100 Best Restaurants list three years running.
And then the building came down.
Better guest experience. Bigger nights. $299. Once.
DOPO: What Comes After
DOPO means "after" in Italian. The name was the whole philosophy.
When the demolition was announced, Migliarese could have scrambled for a new location, recreated the menu, and hung the same photos on different walls. Instead, he treated the loss as a reset. He brought in chef David Leeder to build a menu that kept the Calabrian soul of D.O.P. but pushed the technique further. Southern Italian comfort food with modern execution. A 23-layer black truffle lasagna that became an instant signature. And Mamma Rose, Tony's mother, still weighing in on every recipe that carries her name.
DOPO opened in November 2024 in the basement of a new development in Marda Loop, a 42-seat room that felt intentionally small. Within months, it was ranked fourth on Canada's 100 Best New Restaurants 2025 and named a finalist for Air Canada's Best New Restaurants.
Reservations became difficult to book. But Migliarese makes a point of keeping tables for walk-ins, the split most busy rooms end up running whether or not they planned it.
One Block, Five Concepts
Here's where the story gets interesting for anyone thinking about how to grow an independent restaurant.
Migliarese didn't scatter his concepts across the city. He clustered them. DOPO, Bar Rocca (a wine bar), La Hacienda (a cocktail bar with a Latin American lean), Penny Crown (a New York-style tavern that opened November 2025), and Pizzaface all sit within walking distance of each other on 34th Avenue in Marda Loop. When developer Rod Leonard offered Migliarese a new space across the street for Penny Crown, he said yes because the logic was simple: shared supply chains, shared staff culture, shared foot traffic.
Each concept targets a different mood. DOPO is the special occasion. Bar Rocca is the casual glass of wine. La Hacienda is the late-night spicy margarita. Penny Crown is the neighbourhood hangout serving steak frites and Calabrian fried chicken. Pizzaface is the grab-and-go.
The approach turns a single block into a dining destination. Guests bounce between spots. Staff cross-train. A strong Tuesday night at one restaurant can absorb a slow one next door. It's a model that reduces risk while building something bigger than any single restaurant could be on its own.
And then there's The Little Noodle Shop, a market stall at Crossroads Market run by Migliarese and his director of operations Nina Snider. Fresh pasta, made to order, Fridays through Sundays. Another format, another audience, same kitchen DNA.
Rose's Recipes and the Real Foundation
Through all of this, the constant is Rose. Migliarese's mother worked alongside chefs at D.O.P. to translate family recipes into restaurant dishes. Her tiramisu appears at DOPO, Pizzaface, and The Little Noodle Shop. She still has what Migliarese describes as strong opinions about the food.
This isn't nostalgia. It's structural. Having a culinary identity rooted in family recipes gives Migliarese something that's genuinely hard to copy. Another restaurateur can open an Italian spot in Marda Loop, but they can't open one with Rose's recipes and the 20-year restaurant lineage that comes with them.
It also keeps the food honest. When your mother is tasting every new dish and telling you what she thinks, you don't drift far from the original intent. The cuisine stays rooted even as the restaurants evolve around it.
What Keeps It Running
Winter in Calgary is real. DOPO faces the same seasonal cashflow squeeze every independent restaurant owner knows: holidays end, January hits, and the dining room gets quieter. Migliarese has been open about using tools like Square Loans to bridge the gap, keeping the kitchen staffed and the quality consistent during months when revenue dips. A profitable year and a solvent January are not the same thing, and saying so out loud is the kind of operational honesty that most restaurant owners avoid publicly.
Running five concepts also means running five sets of problems. But the block strategy helps. Shared purchasing, shared management through Snider, and a team that understands multiple formats. The chef who builds the menu at DOPO, David Leeder, also shaped the menu at Penny Crown. That kind of creative continuity is only possible when the restaurants are close enough, literally and culturally, to share talent.
The Pattern Worth Noticing
Migliarese's story isn't about being lucky or well-funded. It's about treating loss as a starting line. Plenty of restaurateurs would have rebuilt D.O.P. as D.O.P. He built DOPO, which means he asked a harder question: not "how do we get back what we had?" but "what should come next?"
That question led to five restaurants on a single block, a market stall, a mother still perfecting tiramisu, and a neighbourhood that didn't have a dining destination until he decided to build one.
Sources: Canada's 100 Best, Savour Calgary, Avenue Calgary, Chef's Favourite, Calgary Herald, Daily Hive Calgary.
