Nude women off the menu at one Nashville bar

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Nude women have been on the menu at The Sutler for years, but the Nashville pub covered up the 19th-century Victorian photos after being warned they might be too racy for state law.

The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission decided Wednesday that only one photo showing a woman's genital area was off-limits, but by then every nipple on the menus had been covered in black marker.

The pub has displayed the artistic antique photos for many years and had never attracted notice of state regulators until recently.

Commission agents had told the pub owner that some of the photos, thought to be from the mid-1800s, might run afoul of state laws that limit sexually explicit material or performances where alcohol is served.

The law bans such things as displays of sexual intercourse and nude wait staff, as well as "scenes wherein artificial devices or inanimate objects are employed to depict, or drawings employed to portray, any of the prohibited activities."

"The underlying issue is whether the pictures violate the statute," said Danielle Elks, executive director of the Alcoholic Beverage Commission. "It is a very broad statute."

Elks said a misunderstanding led The Sutler to black out its menus before the commission made its decision. "It was never the intent of the agency to cite [the pub], and the agency did not threaten them," she said.

The owner of The Sutler, Johnny Potts, said he did not want to talk about the issue.