Todd Welter and his family have made it a tradition to commemorate Christmas in a pricy Lower Downtown restaurant that for them has become a chapel for the needy. “We can go to church on Christmas Day, or we can go to church on Christmas Day,” he said, gesturing toward the unusual Denver ChopHouse & Brewery clientele surrounding him Thursday.
The University of Denver economics professor, his wife, Toni, their college son, Mark, and teenage daughter, Franci, were among 100 volunteers who spent their Christmas serving a holiday meal to Denver’s homeless and needy.
“Every year, I ask (my family), and without hesitation they volunteer,” Welter said of the past six Christmases. “They get so much out of this.”
The ChopHouse has hosted the Christmas event — supported by several businesses and homeless shelters — for 19 years, said Collin McDowell, general manager of the restaurant.
“This is the 19th miracle on 19th Street,” McDowell said. “We go until there is nobody left.”
The restaurant began sponsoring the Christmas dinner in 1996 after learning that several homeless squatters were displaced when the ChopHouse was opened, McDowell said. Since then, more than 132,000 Christmas meals have been served. He was expecting 2,500 guests Thursday.
“We realize that for the vast majority of our guests today, this will be the only restaurant experience in the year,” McDowell said.
Cancer survivor Zoe Rogers, 43, who lost her job as a security officer, brought her two girls and son, ages 9 to 12, to the restaurant Thursday because her apartment oven broke down several days ago and her landlord ignored her repeated pleas to get it fixed.
“(The Christmas dinner) saved our lives, basically,” said 12-year-old Skylar. “I love it. The people are nice and patient.”
Geno Smith, 50, was flinging his arms in an animated dance as the music of Prince played over a speaker outside. Smith stood in a long, fast-moving line that snaked around the restaurant parking lot. It was filled with people carrying backpacks, wearing eye patches, leaning on canes and flashing toothless grins.
Smith said a nice lady holding out a cup of steaming hot chocolate had just walked up to him and asked, “Cocoa?”
“How did you know?” he said.
“Know what?”
“That Chocolate is my stage name,” said Smith, an unemployed professional comedian, as he cracked up while recalling his own joke. Despite his job predicament, Smith was in good spirits anticipating a meal at a restaurant he had never visited before.
Smith was about to be lovingly greeted at the entrance by Lanie Maes, a woman of elflike stature dressed in a festive red sweater.
“Merry Christmas,” Maes warmly said hundreds of times Thursday while hugging men and women, many of whom are living on the streets.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or ,
