Lompoc Café

This review is motivated by Roger’s (X_Drive) comment that I mentioned nary a bar in my blog entry around Bar Harbor. Please know this town harbors quite a few bars, none better than the Lompoc Café. Right downtown off the main drag, the Lompoc sits next door to the Atlantic Brewing Company and offers all the splendid beers which the micro-brewery makes on tap. The defining brew is their Bar Harbor Blueberry Ale.

You may turn up your nose at the thought of a blueberry beer, but this is my all-time favorite. I first sampled this brew back in 1993 and it has reigned as the champ ever since. But the establishment also towers as my favorite Maine night spot. This was just a hip, sleepy dive back when I first started using it as the place to relax after hiking, but when we last visited it in 2001, they had upgraded things substantially and even installed a bocce ball court on the premises (a cool aspect is that it has indoor and outdoors seating areas).

Even the food is great, and I’ve actually planned hikes to conclude at the Lompoc so we might relish one of their dinner specials to wrap up a long day (in that picture of me standing atop Cadillac where I note that Bar Harbor can be seen behind me, guess where I headed from that summit?). Since it’s a tourist town, the crowd seems to be strictly people from away (can’t recall ever talking with a local at this joint) – and I’ve enjoyed quite a few great conversations with folks sharing the day’s adventures in Acadia over a ‘fatty’ --- a 20 ounce draft of Blueberry Ale.

If you are fortunate enough to find yourself visiting Acadia, stopping by the Lompoc is a must. It's even better when you are a veteran, because that first whiff of your Blueberry Ale draft will flood your memory with recollections of all the cool things you have done in Acadia before. As a closing footnote, I’ve sampled two other attempts at blueberry ale and both were wretched. You gotta try the Bar Harbor variety!