We don’t know how this Cambridge brewery managed to make a former car garage feel like a cozy living room, but they pulled it off so well that we’d happily hang out here from morning till night. At 7:30 a.m. (and 8:30 on weekends), the spot opens as Longfellows, a coffee shop with breakfast and snacks; by 11, Lamplighter’s taps are turning, filling pints and crowlers as convivial beer drinkers slowly replace laptop-toting coffee sippers.

The dozen or so varieties of suds on offer rotate frequently, allowing brewers to play with one-off batches and to tinker with wild yeasts, barrel fermentations, and other nerdy pursuits befitting of the neighborhood. Watch their mad experiments from behind the 16-seat bar that looks out into the production area, while sipping a thick, juicy IPA or a flight of current offerings.