Whip In Warns Of "Drama" On Tap With TABC (Updated! TABC Says No Drama Required, Now)

South Austin's Whip In, the popular Tex-Indian restaurant-slash-convenience store-slash-brewpub warns their Facebook fans that "drama" may be on tap with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, representatives of which reportedly have told the Whip In that it may not advertise on its own property that it is, in fact, a brewpub. The TABC "outdoor advertising" code itself, quoted on the Whip In's website, seems to indicate otherwise:

Billboards, electric signs, or other signs to designate the firm name or business of a permittee or licensee authorized to manufacture, rectify, bottle, or wholesale alcoholic beverages may be displayed at the licensee's or permittee's place of business.

Texas brewers and booze-makers have long considered the TABC to be more than a little backwards in its beer labeling and distribution regulations, and claimed earlier this year that craft beer could be a huge economic boon to Texas were the restrictions not so ridonkulous. Back in December 2011, Austin's Jester King brewery successfully sued the TABC alongside other Texas craft brewers and won the right to, for example, call an actual ale an ale.

UPDATE! The TABC says there was some "confusion," but the Whip In is in the clear. After Eater contacted TABC director of communications Carolyn Beck, she spoke with the employee who talked to the Whip In about the signage, and she says that there was "some confusion about two seemingly-competing sections of the statute," but the brewpub is now go for brewpub-related signage.

· Whip In: "Legal Battle" with TABC? [Facebook]
· Judge Rules Mostly In Favor Of Craft Brewers [-EATX-]
· All Craft Beer Coverage on Eater Austin [-EATX-]
· All Whip In Coverage on Eater Austin [-EATX-]

Foursquare

Whip In Convenience Store & Pub

1950 South I H 35, Austin, TX 78745