Photo by Meaghan Habuda for Creative Loafing.
Eric Richardson fell into his job brewing beer for Treasure Island’s R Bar by being in the right place at the right time — and technically doing the wrong thing. While working as a cook at the eatery and bar, a broken burner ring at home facilitated the homebrewer bringing his batches into the restaurant’s kitchen while he was on the clock.
“Really, I was slacking off brewing when I was supposed to be working,” he says.
R Bar owner Robert Hughes became intrigued by what Richardson was doing. He asked for a taste, and in 2013 put three of Richardson’s beers on tap for his patrons. R Bar now features six in-house varieties from the brewer’s 20-gallon system (upgraded from 10 gallons), ranging from the ubiquitous IPA and pale ale to a red IPA, cream ale, porter and brown ale.