Chop's BBQ & Catering

Chop’s BBQ & Catering is a family-owned barbecue restaurant in downtown Smithville, Missouri, opened in 2016 by Dan Ulledahl, a former Kansas City police officer turned pitmaster.

Description

Chop’s BBQ & Catering is a family-owned barbecue restaurant located on East Main Street in downtown Smithville, Missouri, in Clay County north of Kansas City. The restaurant smokes brisket, burnt ends, KC-style pork ribs, pulled pork, sausage, and turkey daily, with thick-cut brisket noted as its signature item. It also operates a catering arm.

The operation is run hands-on by its owners, with the kitchen and front-of-house split between the family. The business grew out of a competition-barbecue background before becoming a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Ownership and history

Chop’s BBQ & Catering was founded by Dan Ulledahl, who spent roughly 15 years as a Kansas City police officer before turning to barbecue as a second career. The business grew out of his competition barbecue team. He runs the back/kitchen while his wife (reported as Sarah) works the front of the house.

The restaurant opened in 2016 in downtown Smithville. Roughly 12 days after opening, a fire — caused by a smoker parked behind the building when a latch failed — heavily damaged the new restaurant in September 2016. After about four months of cleaning, gutting, and rewiring, Chop’s reopened the week of Christmas 2016. The community-supported recovery from that fire became part of the restaurant’s local story.

Menu

Last verified: 2026-06-17 · Source: Chop’s BBQ & Catering official site + TripAdvisor menu/reviews · URL(s): https://www.chopsbbqandcatering.com/menu · https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g44918-d12152512-Reviews-Chop_s_BBQ_Catering-Smithville_Missouri.html · Confidence: Medium (item names corroborated across official site and listings; the full official PDF menu and prices could not be loaded directly)

Chop’s smokes its meats — brisket and pork butts among them — slow-smoked daily, with thick-cut brisket and burnt ends standing out as the signatures. Sides are made in-house from the owners’ competition recipes.

BBQ Meats

• Brisket — thick-cut, slow-smoked daily; the restaurant’s signature meat¹
• Burnt ends — house-praised KC-style burnt ends¹
• KC-style pork ribs — also noted as baby back ribs¹
• Pulled pork — slow-smoked pork butt¹
• Turkey¹
• Sausage¹
• Pit ham¹
• Smoked wings¹
• Fried pork tenderloin¹

Plates & Platters

• The Everything Platter — all of the meats plus four sides¹

Sandwiches

• Burnt end sandwich — signature burnt ends on a bun — $16.99 (price from a single review)¹
• Brisket sandwich¹
• Pulled pork sandwich¹
• Hogenburger — brisket topped with coleslaw on a toasted bun¹
• Reuben¹

Sides

• Bacon cheesy potatoes — competition-recipe side¹
• Cheesy corn¹
• Baked beans¹
• Mac & cheese¹
• Coleslaw¹
• Seasoned fries / seasoned tater tots¹
• Sweet potato waffle fries¹
• Onion rings¹
• Potato salad¹
• Side salad¹

Tier classification

Tier 1. Chop’s is a small, owner-operated, family-owned single-location barbecue restaurant with deep KC-metro ties — owner Dan Ulledahl is a longtime Kansas City police officer turned pitmaster who built the business from a local competition team. The hands-on family operation and the community-backed recovery from the 2016 fire reflect strong pride and dedication to KC-area roots, the core of Tier 1.

Links

• Website: https://www.chopsbbqandcatering.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chopsbbq/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eatatchops/

See also

• the-northland
• gates-bar-b-q
• slaps-bbq
• harp-barbecue
• joes-kansas-city-bar-b-que
• Registry

Sources

1. Feast Magazine — “Chop’s BBQ & Catering Reopens in Downtown Smithville” — https://www.feastmagazine.com/chops-bbq-catering-reopens-in-downtown-smithville/article_f93d9fd2-0284-11e7-9ee9-7f98e8dafec5.html — accessed 2026-05-30
2. The Northland News — “Smithville BBQ Owners Turn to Community After Fire at New Restaurant” — http://thenorthlandnews.com/smithville-bbq-owners-turn-community-fire-new-restaurant/ — accessed 2026-05-30
3. Chop’s BBQ & Catering — homepage — https://www.chopsbbqandcatering.com/ — accessed 2026-05-30
4. Dan Ulledahl — “Chop’s BBQ & Catering llc” (LinkedIn) — https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-ulledahl-b6229932/ — accessed 2026-05-30

Verification

Drafted 2026-05-30 from web research; 4 sources. Verified: address, founding year (2016 — base data’s “2010s” narrowed to 2016), owner Dan Ulledahl, ex-KCPD background, the 2016 fire and reopening, menu/signature brisket, family-owned status. Flagged: spouse first name (reported as Sarah) rests on a single secondary source.

Footnotes

1. Chop’s BBQ & Catering — official menu (https://www.chopsbbqandcatering.com/menu) + TripAdvisor menu/reviews (https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g44918-d12152512-Reviews-Chop_s_BBQ_Catering-Smithville_Missouri.html), accessed 2026-06-17. — asserts: slow-smoked brisket + burnt ends (signatures), KC-style/baby-back ribs, pulled pork, turkey, sausage, pit ham, smoked wings, fried pork tenderloin; the Everything Platter; sandwiches (burnt end, brisket, pulled pork, Hogenburger, Reuben); competition-recipe sides. item prices (the burnt-end-sandwich $16.99 figure is from a single review; full official PDF menu/prices could not be loaded directly). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵