Sneak peek at Topolino restaurant with Evan Hennessey
Evan Hennessey is opening his second Dover restaurant, Topolino, in the city’s new Waterfront District. He shares his vision for the dining experience.
Renowned chef Evan Hennessey is opening a new casual Mediterranean restaurant named Topolino in Dover.The menu will feature small, shareable plates, or meze, inspired by French, Italian, Spanish, and North African cuisine.Topolino will focus on community and shared dining, with no reservations and an open seating plan.The restaurant will have a full bar, patio seating, with plans to eventually offer coffee service and takeout.
DOVER — Renowned chef Evan Hennessey has a new vision for Topolino, his Mediterranean restaurant set to open March 31 in the city’s emerging Waterfront District.
Hennessey said the restaurant is a “totally different idea” than his Dover restaurant Stages, where he serves small groups of six seated at a counter multiple courses, cooking and interacting with diners. Topolino will be more casual, with a bar, open seating and no reservations, located at 9 River St. on the ground floor of a five-story building with apartments on upper floors.
He believes Topolino “complements what Stages brings to the community. It’s kind of like the other end of the spectrum for me. We brought this idea to life, which is really casual, very community forward, and I’m really excited to show everybody.”
Instead of serving “more traditional” American appetizers, entrees and dessert, there’s a “huge meze section,” said Hennessey.
“So, it’s all these small, shareable things. Our idea is that we really want to fill your plate, fill your table with as much food as we can possibly get. Just like you’re at home, or you’re hanging out with friends.”
Hennessey, a former “Chopped” champion on Food Network, is a 2026 James Beard Award semifinalist in the category of Best Chef Northeast.
What’s on menu at Topolino?
There’s a section of the menu where “we’ve broken ideas out into countries,” said Hennessey. “So, for example, there’s a section for France, and it’s all French inspired.”
He said there will be Italian, Spanish and North African dishes, too.
Hennessey shared a first look at the menu, which featured a baguette and cultured butter, and another dish of sauteed mussels in the France section. Other dishes under other countries include burrata with tomatoes, crostini and balsamic, and chicken parmesan under Italy, and charred beets, roasted chicken and baba ghanoush under eastern North Africa.
Hennessey said there are many great spices featured, and “nothing is heavy. It’s all light, bright, olive oil, citruses, herbs, food that’s actually good for you.” The menu is also broken out by size for the meze smaller plates, said Hennessey, which is a “collection of plates meant to float the table and be shared.”
“When you order, all the stuff comes to your table, and it’s like here’s your protein, sauce, and you’ve got a handful of different little sides,” said Hennessey. “All of a sudden, your table’s flooded with Spanish food, or French or North African. The more food you can flood a table with, the happier people become, and that’s what this is about.”
The restaurant won’t have TVs, said Hennessey, as the idea is for “togetherness and community, (and) it’s like a TV just breaks that down.” Everyone is welcome, including families and kids, he said.
Topolino a ‘place for people to gather’
Hennessey described the menu to be “abundance in the way of lots of little things, not like one grand, giant steak.”
He expressed pride in Topolino’s food sourcing, which ties into Stages. His team will work with a Loudon farm for all land animals and also with Vernon Family Farm of Newfields. Hennessey said they’re expanding what was “initiated” with Stages, and “I really want to show that you can still do that with a larger restaurant. I think the smaller plate concept, meze and things of that sort is how you do it.”
“Restaurants to me have been so lost, the idea of what we’ve built restaurants to be,” said Hennessey. “What I want this to be, is that restaurants are meant for people to gather (and) enjoy each other’s company over food. They’re cornerstones of communities, it’s a place for people to gather, if they want to do work, if they want to get together with friends and family, that’s what this is about. You can eat and drink at your leisure, versus a more choreographed dining experience.”
Hennessey said if you have smaller items, it’s like you’re eating “all together, the fact that we’re handing each other things back and forth, it’s interactive. Whether it’s a holiday or you’ve got your family over, it’s a bunch of food and you pass it around the table and have conversations, and you’re smiling, laughing, that’s what a restaurant is to me.”
Full bar, patio seating in the future
The square footage of the new restaurant is three times the size of Stages, said Hennessey. Topolino features 72 seats at table height, said Hennessey, and 11 at the bar. When the weather permits, seating will expand to a patio, he said, adding he’s very excited to provide outdoor dining.
Hennessey said the drink and beverage options “is literally a mirror image” with the food. He said there will be some traditional cocktails, but “then we take some of those things and work them with Mediterranean flavors. It’s the same idea if you have drinks that are broken out and things that are maybe traditionally French, or Spanish, a sangria of sorts, but the way we want to make it is different.”
He said there will be mocktails, too. The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday to start. He said the goal is eventually to be open seven days a week and open earlier for coffee.
“So, this is where more like the Mediterranean idea comes in, whereas restaurants open earlier, their menu is available and they’ve got the espresso bar going, and you can sit and you can do some work and have something to eat, non-traditional from a lot of Americans. We’re not doing toast and eggs,” it’s an all-day menu, said Hennessey.
Through a glass door from the restaurant is office and a co-working space, said Hennessey, which has access to Topolino. So eventually, if people are working during the day they could come into Topolino and get something to eat and have a coffee and work. Also in the future, the restaurant will have a takeout food program, said Hennessey.
Hennessey said he’ll have a chef that will run the kitchen, and he will be in role like director of operations, and in many ways play “a supporting role” for the staff.
“It’s a nice, bright, open, accepting space to be and where they can trust the food, trust the drink, we can trust the people,” said Hennessey. “It’s a handshake between us and the community.”
Dining and Cooking