Lamplighter Brewing Co. Moves Forward With Expansion Plans to Cambridge Crossing

The plans and timeline have changed a bit (blame 2020), but Cambridge’s Lamplighter Brewing Co. is moving forward with its expansion to the Cambridge Crossing (CX) development in East Cambridge, near the Lechmere MBTA station. Construction is set to resume in June, with an opening expected later this year, for Lamplighter CX, a 7,000-square-foot taproom and production space located alongside restaurants the Lexington, Geppetto, and Café Beatrice in a building called the Shed.

When Lamplighter initially announced the expansion at the end of 2019, it was for a distillery, nanobrewery, and taproom, but the team is dropping the distillery plan for now, focusing on using the new production facility to age, blend, and bottle barrel-aged beers.

“While we may pursue a distillery in the future, our current resources are dedicated to making the best beer we can and (re)opening neighborhood-focused taproom spaces,” said cofounder Cayla Marvil via press release.

The original Lamplighter location — which is currently offering outdoor dining and drinking, as well as cafe and retail sales via a counter out front — opened at the end of 2016 at 284 Broadway, Cambridge, and was named Eater Boston’s taproom of the year the following year thanks to its great beers and fun vibes. It’s become quite a neighborhood hotspot, offering in-house cafe service, food pop-ups, games, and seasonal beer gardens.

While the team was especially interested in producing Brett IPAs in Lamplighter’s early days, the beer lineup has diversified quite a bit since 2016; drinkers will find everything from bourbon barrel-aged mixed fermentation sours to Czech-style pilsners to Vienna-style lagers.