“It is going to be serious business,” Engels said. “This is big. It will probably employ around 200 people.”

The company didn’t provide a price tag for the bistro project.

Engels said the company is confident about demand in the Richmond region because two of the hottest markets for its beer are the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. He said the tasting room at its Richmond brewery “is one of our best-performing tasting rooms,” out of the six Stone operates, five of which are in California.

A year ago, Stone announced plans to open a 99-room boutique hotel across the street from its Escondido brewery, and the company suggested it might do the same eventually in Richmond.

The California hotel is still in planning. As for Richmond, Engels said he is “spiritually interested” in having a hotel here, but there are no concrete plans.

“There are lot of pieces that have to come together for that to materialize,” he said.

The equipment the company is adding at the Richmond brewery includes fermenting and carbonation tanks. The Williamsburg Avenue plant is on track to brew about 100,000 barrels this year, or more than 3 million gallons, about 25 percent of the company’s total production.