SIGN BROUHAHA BRINGS COURT TO BAR

The regulars were huddled over their beers at a Williamson Road
watering hole Wednesday afternoon when in walked a city judge, a
legislator, an assistant attorney general and a sheriff's deputy.

Once it became apparent this was neither a bust nor a scandal in the
making, the regulars turned back to the bar.

Which left the members of the other bar free to pursue their legal
duties: Checking out the ambiance of W.R. Brews sports bar and its
neon bar lights, the subject of long-standing litigation.

More than two years ago, the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board
ordered bar owner William Kopcial to rid his establishment of the
lighted displays that adorn the walls. The Miller High Life, the Red
Dog, the Moosehead and the Bud Light lights all constitute illegal
advertising, the ABC decreed.

Not one to be denied his bar lights or constitutional rights, Kopcial
filed a lawsuit.

His petition asked Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Robert P. Doherty to
reverse the board's ruling on the grounds that his beloved beer signs
are in fact works of pop art, thus protected from government regulation.

They may occupy a beer joint and not an art gallery, Kopcial
contended, but his bar lights should nonetheless be given the same
legal status as Andy Warhol's tomato soup can or Michelangelo's most
famous sculpture.

"Does the statute of David suddenly change its character if we put it
down in W.R. Brews?" said Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, a state delegate
from Roanoke and Kopcial's lawyer. "We would argue no."

But if art is in the eye of the beholder as Woodrum said, the judge
mused aloud from the bench, shouldn't he actually behold the art in
question? Woodrum said he would be "happy as a hog in the water" to
have everybody over.

So as quick as the bailiff could say "Court stands in recess,"
Doherty, Woodrum and Assistant Attorney General Louis Matthews packed
up their briefcases and hit the road to W.R. Brews.

While Woodrum sipped a Coke, the others went drinkless in the search
for justice.

Legal documents in hand, Doherty compared photographs taken two years
ago to the bar's current decor. Where did the Genuine Miller Draft
lighted clock go? he wondered.

"It burnt out," Kopcial replied matter - of - factly.

And about this Latrobe Crafted Brews picture, the judge asked, do you
sell that kind of beer here?

"I've never even heard of it ," Kopcial said. "I just thought it was a
pretty picture."

But pretty pictures can run afoul of ABC regulations, which prohibit
neon, lighted displays and other attention grabbers for any brand of
beer sold at the bar in question.

The reason for the law is twofold, Matthews explained: Unlimited
advertising could give one beer distributor an unfair advantage over
another . At the same time, he said, it also could encourage excessive
drinking -- presumably by impressionable patrons basking in the glow
of neon bar lights.

Doherty said it will be another week or so before he rules. "I think
going there brought it all into perspective," he said .

Back at W.R. Brews, barstool judges Doug Horn and Jack Yeager, both
regulars who sat quietly through Doherty's visit, had already reached
their decisions.

"I like the place," Yeager said. "It's not drab or
anything."

Horn scoffed at the ABC's logic as he surveyed the bar lights above
him and the cold beer in front of him.

"That sign doesn't mean nothing to me," he said. "I knew what I wanted
when I came in here."