NEDERLAND — “I felt a great weight lifted when I just let it all go,” Jeffrey Green, co-owner with his wife Susan of Very Nice Brewing Company (VNBC), said in March of last year, as fellow tenants of the Caribou Village Shopping Center reacted to the destruction and loss of personal items belonging to those stores. 

“The past is best left in the past.  We are lucky to have the here and now and that’s why they call it ‘The Present.’”

Jeff and Susan Green would have celebrated 13 years in the shopping center in October 2025, but the chance for that celebration was abruptly taken away from them when the center burned down October 9. 

After cleanup of the debris was delayed throughout the winter, the demolition company hired by Tebo Properties knocked down the top floor, crushing all that remained underneath and demolishing any chance of the tenants recovering their personal property. Thousands of dollars’ worth of items were likely destroyed, including irreplaceable mementos. 

“I don’t want to get all philosophical, but stuff to me is stuff, it can be replaced—it will be replaced,” Green said while sitting on a decorative couch in the appropriately named Very Nice Nook. It's a classic, rustic-style lounge like one you might find in an old hunting club, designed within a former storage room in the upstairs of The Vault, the site of VNBC’s new location. 

Green was hoping to retrieve some personal photographs from the old site, as well as the remnants of their lighted sign—a beacon to the community—or just a small piece of the custom wooden tables, or of the bar that was made by hand by Susan’s father. But that chance never came.

Green, who left a career as a quality engineer in the Biopharma/Medical Device field to pursue starting VNBC with his wife, has always been a pragmatic person, even when faced with emotionally difficult times. His patience and “gentle giant” demeanor have been put to the test by the fire.

“There’s no way to say that everything’s going great since the shopping center went down,” Green said. “We really miss having that space.” 

Just before the fire, Jeff and Susan were finishing up celebrating the first year of their Gilpin County location. VNBC’s Gilpin taproom was constructed on the Greens’ own property, and was built as Jeff’s main brewing facility. 

Though the new location could certainly be considered an expansion, the Gilpin location was more about stability and longevity for the business. 

“We had a year left on the lease and we were hoping for another three years,” Green explained. “We weren’t confident that we’d be able to afford past those three years, so that’s why we built the place out in Gilpin; not to expand.

“The finances in Gilpin depended on moving beer through the taproom here because there’s more people here, we’re established here, and the shopping center was a phenomenal spot to be. All those businesses just worked with each other.”

Over a decade nestled within the hustle and bustle of the Caribou Village Shopping Center, VNBC’s Nederland taproom became a part of what Green sees as a great economic engine that powers the Town that he and his wife fell in love with.

As a pragmatic person with a John Denver-level of admiration for the mountains, Green spent years in service to the betterment of local commerce, volunteering on downtown development authorities and planning commissions for both Nederland and Gilpin.  

After the Lakeview Fire, Green felt lost and in a haze. The promised support for small business owners never materialized. 

“Polis came, Neguse came, and they all gave speeches and I feel like they kind of stepped away after that, as far as Ned is concerned," he said. "And a year later, I haven’t seen a mad dash from the Town to replace that tax money that those businesses generated, so I’m wondering how Ned makes its money. 

“Ned has nothing but good things to gain by encouraging every small business and giving them every push and help they can to generate that long term tax base," Green continued. "I mean, 35 to 40 cents for every beer that we sell goes to Town."

He questions Nederland's focus on the acquisition of the Eldora ski area. “These types of pie-in-the-sky projects, they become a lot more viable when you have a nice income stream, as opposed to borrowing, borrowing, borrowing.” 

Soon after the fire, the Greens announced a silver-lining: They would be reopening the VNBC Nederland taproom in The Vault at 26 Highway 119.  “We were pretty lucky to have a place to go, as there’s not a lot of commercial areas in Nederland,” Green said.

The Red Room at Very Nice Brewing Company at The Vault in Nederland.

Photo by Christopher Kelley

After detailing where all the ornate furniture for the nook was sourced, Green described briefly how fitting VNBC into its current space has been a challenge—from planning for accessibility and compliance, to sharing an indoor mall with several disparate businesses. The venture has ultimately been rewarding, as the community begins to return to the taproom. 

“We’ve always been a community-oriented brewery as opposed to being super competitive; we’re really trying to stick to that egalitarian nature of beer," Green said. "We are social creatures. We like to congregate, to tell stories—and, mental health-wise, you need a place to go bitch. You need the ear of your friends, of your family away from family, so you can talk about your woes or your accomplishments.” 

There’s a lot more that goes into creating the perfect meeting place. That very specific and integral work Jeff credits to his wife Susan. 

“I was just trying to keep the beer flowing, but Susan is really the one who put together the taproom; she led the charge,” Jeff said.

As she was cleaning, organizing, and typing away on her laptop, Susan took a moment to think back of the first time seeing their new, blank canvas.  

“Seeing it all white with nothing here, it was like, ‘is it going to be a bar?’ And it did become a bar! I mean, the third time around, it’s a snap then, right? We knew we wanted the same theme, but there was a lot of running around because I don’t like buying new. But it all came together and it feels like Very Nice.”  

Despite it all, the Greens feel lucky and thankful not only to be in a new space, but for the embrace of the community and support of fellow local business owners.

“We all press each other to be better,” Jeff concluded. “With any business, you’re always paying attention to the vibe, making sure you’re keeping up a good thing that people want to experience, and that’s not something you can just take for granted. It takes active maintenance.

"Just like anything that grows, you have to make sure it’s taken care of.”