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Chops is an independent, family-run butchery in central Denver. This is who we are, how we buy, and why we cut the way we do.
Our story
James Davis grew up in a family that bought a side of beef every autumn and filled the chest freezer for winter. He trained as a butcher in Boston, spent seven years cutting for hotel kitchens, then moved west and opened Chops at 65 West 12th Avenue in Denver in 2012 with two staff, one aging cabinet and a hand-written price board.
The board is still hand-written. The team is now eleven people, five of whom have been here more than six years. What has not changed is the method: buy whole animals, break them ourselves, age patiently, cut to order, and tell customers exactly where their food came from.
We are not the cheapest counter in Denver and we have never tried to be. We would rather sell you two good chops than five ordinary ones.
"A butcher's job is to make the whole animal worth eating. Anyone can sell a ribeye."
— James Davis, owner
What we stand by
Every ranch we buy from is listed on the board in the shop. Ask and we will tell you the lot number of the animal your steak came from.
Grass-fed and grass-finished beef, pasture-raised pork and lamb, no added hormones, no sub-therapeutic antibiotics.
Trim becomes sausage, bones become broth, fat becomes tallow. Under 2% of intake weight is discarded.
Nobody leaves the counter without knowing how to cook what they just bought. Free, every time, no eye-rolling.
The team
Owner & head butcher
Twenty-one years on the block. Handles all whole-animal buying and every wholesale cut sheet personally.
Shop manager
Runs the counter, the delivery schedule and the freezer-share programme. Knows every regular's order by heart.
Charcuterie & smoking
Responsible for the sausage recipes, the bacon cure and the fennel salami people drive across town for.
Sourcing
We work with small Colorado operations in Kiowa, Yuma, Del Norte and the San Luis Valley, plus two lamb producers near Monte Vista. Visits happen at least twice a year and we buy whole or half carcasses so the rancher is not left with the awkward cuts.
Milestones
Chops opens on West 12th Avenue with two staff and a single aging cabinet.
Purpose-built dry-aging room installed; first restaurant wholesale accounts signed.
Refrigerated delivery van added to keep households supplied through lockdown.
Charcuterie programme expanded; thirty-eighth wholesale kitchen joins the round.
65 West 12th Avenue, Denver, Colorado 80204. Street parking on 12th, ten minutes from Civic Center Station.
