CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing in Fort Collins has new local ownership

FORT COLLINS — Homebrewing enthusiast Brandon Shaw, a longtime resident of Northern Colorado, has taken over ownership of CooperSmith’s Pub & Brewing, Fort Collins’ first official brewpub.

The transfer of ownership at 5 Old Town Square was effective Monday, the brewery said in a news release. Financial details of the transaction were unavailable.

The brewpub was founded in 1989 by Scott Smith, along with John Hickenlooper and 28 investors. Smith named the pub after his son, Cooper.

Hickenlooper, who also founded Wynkoop Brewing Co. in lower downtown Denver, would go on to become mayor of Denver from 2003 to 2011 and Colorado governor from 2011 to 2019 before being elected in 2020 as one of the state’s two U.S. senators.

This is the second ownership transition the restaurant has seen in its almost 36 years in business after Smith sold it in 2014 to his managing partners: general manager Sandra Longton, head brewer Dwight Hall and operational manager Chris O’Mara.

“CooperSmith’s is a staple in our community, and it’s an honor that Chris, Sandi, and Dwight have put their trust in me to continue the legacy that Scott Smith began so many years ago,” Shaw said in a prepared statement. “I have been working toward opening a craft brewery for a long time, and jumped at this opportunity to be a part of a place that is so deeply ingrained in our community.” 

Shaw, who currently serves as vice president and head of technology services at Western Union, has hired Willy Hammon to lead the restaurant day-to-day as chief operating officer. Hammon previously served as executive director of the Harmony Imaging Center LLC, a radiology business in Fort Collins that does business as the Imaging Center, and has a background in operational management and business development.

“It’s important to note that all employees are being retained, and Coops will still be largely the same restaurant everyone knows and loves,” Hammon said. “Our goal is to bring new energy and ideas into the space to ensure CooperSmith’s is around for another 35 years.”

CooperSmith’s operates its brewpub and restaurant in a building in Old Town Fort Collins that it calls “Pubside,” just across a narrow walkway that connects Mountain Avenue with Old Town Square from another building it called “Poolside.” That space featured billiards, shuffleboard, ping-pong and other games along with its own snack menu and the brewery’s craft-beer selections until CooperSmith’s closed it on Sept. 30, 2022, to focus on the brewpub. 

Visit Fort Collins announced in January that it would move its Old Town welcome center and offices into slightly more than 3,000 square feet of leased space in the Poolside building. The owners of a pair of companion restaurants — “Bonchon,” a Korean fried chicken franchise, and “Brown Donkatsu, ” a Korean katsu eatery — announced in July they would move into the rest of the building.