Lompoc Cafe, Bocce, and the Fog Horn

Lompoc Cafe, Bocce, and the Fog Horn

Lompoc Cafe at 36 Rodick Street brews its own beer in back and serves it in a room where the tables are close enough that your conversation will merge with your neighbor's. The Bar Harbor Real Ale is an English-style bitter that tastes like the ocean air it was brewed in. The Coal Porter is dark and smooth and makes fog cozy.

The bocce court in the back garden is the real draw. String lights between trees, games casual and slightly competitive after the second beer, bocce balls clinking against each other mixing with conversation and the distant fog horn. Bar Harbor nightlife is not clubbing. It's a brewery with a bocce court and a fog horn, and nobody cares that you're still wearing trail shoes.

Thursday trivia is the town's best intellectual event. Regulars form teams with names and strategies but losing doesn't ruin the evening. Get a table near the garden door where fog drifts in like a quiet participant.