The Brewpub That Started the Boom
CooperSmith's opened in Old Town Square in 1989 and is, by a meaningful margin, the operation that convinced Fort Collins to take itself seriously as a brewing town. Everything downstream — New Belgium opening in 1991, Odell opening that same year, the entire Colorado craft-beer wave that eventually positioned Fort Collins as one of the country's beer capitals — can reasonably trace a thread back to this address on Old Town Square. Thirty-five years in, the original brewpub is still running, still packing the patio in summer, and still pouring beers brewed in the tanks you can see through the dining room glass.
The operation is split across two buildings — a "Pubside" more oriented toward the dining room experience and a "Poolside" across the square with billiards, shuffleboard, and a more bar-forward energy. The Pubside is where to eat. The menu is English pub meets American standards — scratch-made beer-cheese, hand-battered chicken fingers, beer-battered fries, burgers, pretzels, pot pies, steak frites. None of this is trying to be destination cooking. All of it is above the standard you would expect from a brewpub at this age, and the sheer consistency of the kitchen is the quiet achievement. Thirty-five years is a long time to keep a menu at this level.
The beer program is the reason to be here. Blue Paddle Pilsner. Punjabi Pale Ale. Not Brown Ale. Horse Tooth Stout. Seasonal releases that rotate with genuine ambition. The cask-conditioned options alone are worth the visit for serious beer drinkers — there is no other cellar in Fort Collins doing the real-ale discipline at this scale. Flights are generously priced and an excellent way to map the program on a first visit.
The patio is a Fort Collins institution in its own right. On a summer evening with the Old Town Square clock at the end of a long Colorado sunset, there is no more enjoyable way to spend two hours with a flight and a plate of pretzels. The patio fills fast on weekends — arrive early or reserve.
What to Order at CooperSmith's
A flight to open. The house pretzel with the beer cheese. Either the fish and chips or the beer-battered burger. If it is Friday, the prime rib special. If the cask engine is pouring, whatever is on it. A Horse Tooth Stout to close. Come hungry and expect to leave slow.
At a Glance
Why It Works for Team Dinners
CooperSmith's is the default team dinner answer in Fort Collins when the brief is "somewhere everyone will feel comfortable and nobody will feel overcharged." The menu has enough range that every diner finds something good; the beer program is the genuine draw and the conversation starter; the patio in summer accommodates a group of ten without making anyone feel hostage to a formal dining room. The pricing is honest. The service handles groups well. And the historical weight of the place — the one that started the Fort Collins beer wave — gives the evening a small sense of occasion.
It also works for a casual birthday — large patio tables in summer, a flight for the group, a scratch-made dessert. For solo dining, the pub-side bar is a solid answer: a stool, a flight, a burger, and whatever hockey or CSU football is on the screen. No one will bother you, and no one will make you feel you are bothering them.
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