DOPO/Bar Rocca | Calgary’s Best New Restaurants 2025

by Elizabeth Chorney-Booth

Two plates of food at Dopo/Bar Rocca. — Photo by Jared Sych.

Who’s behind it
Owner Tony Migliarese

When it opened
November 2024

The dish to eat
Any pasta dish

When the much-loved D.O.P. closed last summer, after years of speculation that the Victoria Park building it resided in was to be torn down, many Calgary restaurant lovers shed a tear. D.O.P. — heralded as much for its friendly vibes as for its excellent Italian food — felt like capturing lightning in a bottle. As gifted as Tony Migliarese is in the art of hospitality, he knew there was no guarantee of replicating that magic elsewhere.

So, he chose a completely different space in Marda Loop, appointed his friend David Leeder, who had returned to Calgary after a stint at Thomas Keller’s Per Se in New York City, as his executive chef and opened DOPO — fittingly, the Italian word for “after.”

Glimpses of D.O.P. (particularly the incredible breads and spreads antipasti menu) remain, but DOPO is a new beast, with a more luxurious, yet still rustic, take on Italian fare. Leeder’s dishes — from an impossibly delicious, brown-buttery winter squash and brussel sprouts appetizer to a dry-aged bistecca — match the more grown-up feel of the Tuscan-style decor. Reservations are difficult to snag, but walk-ins or those who like to linger before or after their meal can head upstairs to DOPO’s sister Bar Rocca, a casual snacks ’n’ wine spot curated by wine director Derek Grandpre.

10, 1907 34 Ave. S.W., dopoyyc.com, @dopo.yyc