Lompoc Cafe on a Night the Fog Rolls In

Lompoc Cafe on a Night the Fog Rolls In

Lompoc Cafe at 36 Rodick Street brews its own beer in the back and serves it in a room where the walls are covered in local art and the tables are close enough together that your conversation will merge with your neighbor's, which in Bar Harbor is considered a feature. The Bar Harbor Real Ale is the house flagship — an English-style bitter that tastes like the ocean air it was brewed in — and the Coal Porter is dark and smooth and makes the fog outside feel cozy rather than threatening.

The bocce court in the back garden is the real draw on summer nights. Strings of lights hang between the trees, the games are casual and slightly competitive in the way that only games played after the second beer can be, and the sound of bocce balls clinking against each other mixes with the conversation and the distant fog horn to create a soundtrack that belongs exclusively to this town.

Bar Harbor nightlife is not clubbing. It's not cocktail bars with dress codes. It's a brewery with a bocce court and a fog horn, and the people next to you just hiked Cadillac Mountain and are still wearing their trail shoes and nobody cares. That's the whole proposition, and it's enough.

Insider tip: The Thursday night trivia at Lompoc is Bar Harbor's best-attended intellectual event, and the regulars take it seriously enough to form teams with names and strategies but not so seriously that losing ruins the evening. Come early to get a table near the garden door, where the fog drifts in like a quiet participant.