Owner Frank Schultz promises Cherry Creek staple will remain a sports favorite.

Frank Schulz is getting back in the concert game – and he swears that won’t mess up any of the many big games that are coming up for Denver’s pro sports fans.

Schultz is the sole owner of Choppers Sports Grill, home to one of the best screens to watch any sporting event in Denver. Chopper’s is presently under (re-)construction to accommodate a big new live music stage that will span the length of the bar’s nearly-new 250-inch LED TV screen along the north wall.

Schultz, who made the Soiled Dove synonymous with jazz and other live music in Denver for nearly 30 years until it all disintegrated in a family legal squabble, is bringing the name, and the brand, back to 80 S. Madison St.

The bar will always be Chopper’s, but this new stage will be known as “The Soiled Dove at Chopper’s,” Schultz said. The new era begins May 9 with the hard-rocking country sounds of The Railbenders, self-described as “a Denver band that has been playing unabashed, straight-no-chaser music that pulls no punches since 2000.”

Schultz chose May 9 for his soft launch because that’s the date Jim Dalton and his legendary band are available, “and I wanted the Railbenders to be the band to introduce this room first,” he said. “We have had a relationship with that band for a lot of years now. They did all kinds of shows at the old Soiled Dove. So this was very important to me. ”

Plus, he said of the band, “they draw and drink,” meaning … well, that part was pretty self-explanatory.

No other bookings are yet set, in part because Schultz and Talent Buyer Chris Reidy swear this new music venture will not interfere with any significant sporting events, which is the bar’s bread and butter. After all, the bar is named after Bob “Chopper” Travaglini, the late and legendary former trainer for the Denver Nuggets who opened the spot in 1996.

Keeping that promise will be a little like committing to a lifetime of playing the video game Frogger, though, because both the Nuggets and Avalanche begin their calendrically fluid playoff journeys (as many as 28 games each) over the next few days.

“I want to make it clear that this is a sports bar first, and then live music,” said Schultz, who predicts there might be four to six ticketed shows a month. “So when the Nuggets have playoff games, we won’t have shows – it’s as simple as that. And we’ll only be booking shows when we’ve got the right show to book.”

That’s a daunting, exciting promise for Reidy to try to keep, “and it’s keeping me up at night, to be frank with you,” said Reidy, himself a musician who plays for at the local cover bands Mr. Majestyk’s 8-Track Revival and Judge Roughneck. That’s because the Nuggets or Avs might very well end up playing at the same time as the Railbenders on the evening of May 9.  

“I’m keeping all of my fingers and toes crossed,” Reidy said.

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While the opening night is set in stone (and the show, with a $34 ticket, is close to being sold out to a 300 capacity, Schultz said), Reidy has a sophisticated strategy for determining future gigs, which he hopes will include Hazel Miller, The Samples, Mr. Majestyk, Stone Beat Invasion, The Long Run and other throwback bands and cover bands “for the fun factor.” Schultz says there will be an Opie Gone Bad reunion at some point as well.

“I’m a software developer by day, and so I developed a model within Chat GPT that broke down every single day for the remainder of the year in terms of sports. I asked it to focus on Denver teams as well as some other college teams that Frank says packs that place, and to tell me what days to avoid. The model continues to update itself all the time, and that’s really going to help me to determine what nights I can go for live music.

“It was causing me a lot of anxiety for a month or two because I could never fool you into thinking I know anything about sports. But I think I have a good handle on it now.

I promise, I am going to make sure that everybody’s happy because it’s so important to all of us that Chopper’s remains primarily a sports bar.”

Workers have pulled out all the booths from the main dining area and replaced them with tables that can either stay or be pulled to create a standing area for any given concert, depending on the audience vibe. There will be one long “booth-back” all around the perimeter of the walls. A limited food menu will be available during concerts.

Schultz said there will be new exterior signage to incorporate the Soiled Dove name. And he doesn’t expect parking to be an issue because Chopper’s has some of its own, and street parking is free and plentiful.

Schultz said he doesn’t think of Chopper’s as a huge money-maker because while it does a strong lunch crowd, it can get awfully quiet in that part of East Cherry Creek at night, especially when there is no game. “What this does is it gives us another cylinder in the evening,” he said. “I’m just adding something to a thing that already exists and is already paying the bills.”

Presenting live music, Schultz said, has always been something of a hobby.

“I opened my first Soiled Dove in 1997 in LoDo,” he said. “And then I moved to Lowry in 2006 and built exactly what I wanted music-wise from the ground up. But it took us six years to make a dollar.”

Schultz built up a portfolio of 15 Tavern-branded joints that he managed through the Tavern Hospitality Group with his mother and co-founder, Terry Papay. A settlement of their ugly legal entanglement in early 2025 left Schultz as the sole owner of Chopper’s (which they had bought together in 2015).

On March 16, Schultz’s Otra Vez Cantina reopened on the 16th Street Mall after a very long pandemic break. Those are now his only two active current properties, though several shuttered venues like the Tech Center Tavern remain for sale. In November 2025, ex-Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway took ownership of the former Tavern Uptown building at 538 E. 17th Ave. in Denver through a foreclosure auction.

One thing we do know about Schultz’s present aspirations in the Denver restaurant industry:

“I have zero interest at this moment to do anything else in Denver because of Denver’s minimum-wage and tipped-employee policy,” he said. “They’re averaging $60 an hour, and they have just destroyed the industry.”

Who knows what’s in store now? A new era begins for the Soiled Dove, which was one of the first Denver venues to book rising stars like Jack Johnson, Pete Yorn, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran and The Fray.

“You know what?” Schultz said. “That name – The Soiled Dove – means something to people.”

John Moore is the Denver Gazette’s Senior Arts Journalist. Email him at [email protected].