A sports bar called The Big Board on the H Street Corridor that’s garnered national attention for publicly flouting D.C.’s mask and vaccine requirements may have caught a break on Monday.

The liquor license for The Big Board will remain suspended until COVID-19 regulations are repealed and the bar requests another hearing due to a change in circumstances, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board decided on Monday afternoon. But earlier in the day, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the vaccine and mask requirements on businesses would lift Feb. 15 and March 1, respectively. This means the bar could potentially get its indefinite suspension lifted soon.

However, in order to reopen The Big Board still needs to resolve issues with DC Health and the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

The Big Board was the first and only local business to be penalized with a license suspension for not following D.C.’s vaccine requirement, which kicked in Jan. 15. The month-long saga confused onlookers. “I don’t understand the point to all this,” says Richard Blanco, a local attorney who represents small businesses. “What did you really accomplish beside making a lot of noise?”

It’s unclear what the costs were for closing in an apparent political protest, or how easy it will be for the bar to reopen. The bar did raise tens of thousands of dollars from supporters, but that may not be enough to cover rent and other operational costs.  The Big Board was not immediately available for request for comment.

The ABC Board’s decision comes as no surprise, seeing as the bar admitted to breaking COVID-19 rules during a two-hour hearing Thursday on its liquor license suspension. The Big Board also did not agree to begin checking patrons’ vaccine cards as required by the District. Instead, Flannery requested through his attorney to operate strictly as a takeout and delivery restaurant, if staff agrees to mask up.

“There is no reason for checking vaccine status,” said Katie Chaverri, Flannery’s lawyer. “We understand the mask mandate. However, we believe this is just going too far and too intrusive into the business’ operations.”

Chaverri added that her client’s “number one goal is to preserve the value of his operation, one that’s been in Northeast D.C. for the last ten years.”

The Big Board did not offer much of a defense. Chaverri offered no evidence or witnesses, other than Flannery, who sat behind her but declined to speak during the hours-long hearing. Chaverri  also waived her client’s right to contest the legality of the COVID-19 regulations. Meanwhile, legal counsel for D.C. government put forward a lot of evidence, including information based on eight investigations and multiple witnesses. Because the allegations and harm have been established, D.C. lawyers argued The Big Board’s liquor license should be indefinitely suspended.

“This case is about a bar owner doing exactly what he said he was going to do,” said Walter Adams, one of the lawyers who represented D.C. during the hearing. 

During his opening remarks, Adams listed multiple occasions when D.C. regulators visited The Big Board to educate management about D.C.’s mask and vaccine requirements, along with the penalties for noncompliance. An investigator with the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) reminded the bar’s management of the new vaccine requirement for businesses the day before it kicked in, on Jan. 14, and Flannery indicated at that time he would not comply. Chaverri conceded in her opening remarks, telling the ABC board “my client doesn’t contest much of the evidence that is going to presented.” 

ABC Board chairman Donovan Anderson sounded puzzled to hear Chaverri’s admission, saying “I’m not sure what this board is being asked to do?” The board convened a hearing to verify the allegations and to determine whether the claims pose an imminent danger to public safety.

Chaverri asked the ABC board to let The Big Board operate as a carryout business, so staff could at least receive paychecks. ABRA only has jurisdiction over liquor licensing, so Anderson offered the parties the opportunity to enter into some sort of agreement. But lawyers representing D.C. declined, because DC Health and DCRA suspended the bar’s licenses and rendered the bar closed. Anderson also said the ABC board generally does not offer a carry-out or delivery endorsement unless a formal request is made.

Anderson continued on with the hearing, despite objections from Flannery’s lawyer. “Do we need to go through with all of this?” asked Chaverri. “Can we just hear the board’s ruling assuming it will be a denial?”

Adams invited several witnesses to testify, including DC Health State Epidemiologist Dr. Anil Mangla, who stressed the importance of masking and vaccination in reducing community transmission. Mangla said bars are a leading source of COVID-19 outbreak in D.C. for adults, suggesting the bar is putting the community at risk by refusing to take any layered mitigation approach. “The mask and vaccine mandates are of crucial essence to continue with the trends we are seeing right now,” he said. (The mayor distanced her administration from these comments on Monday.)

The hearing scheduled Thursday was delayed by one week because Flannery failed to secure legal counsel. In his request for a six-week continuance, Flannery says he has attempted to obtain a lawyer since Dec. 28, and reached out to over 10 legal services. The ABC Board granted just a one week postponement, and declined to approve any more time.

The Office of the Attorney General for D.C. is preparing a separate case against the bar and recommends discipline. The OAG can recommend suspending the bar for time already served, or revoking the liquor license altogether. The disciplinary process can take months.

Whoever runs The Big Board’s Twitter account had hinted the bar would skirt D.C.’s vaccine mandate, tweeting “everyone is welcome” just two days before the requirement took effect, which is what first caught the attention of D.C. regulators. ABRA then issued the bar multiple warnings and fines, but staff continued to ignore mask and vaccine requirements.

In late January, ABRA suspended The Big Board’s liquor license for failing to adhere to COVID-19 regulations. A few days later, DC Health closed the bar for similar reasons. The Big Board is the only D.C. business to have had its liquor license suspended this year. Between Jan. 8 and Feb. 7, ABRA documented 59 violations of COVID-19 regulations — every establishment but The Big Board received written or verbal warnings.

Republican members of Congress coalesced around The Big Board after Laura Ingraham of Fox News interviewed Flannery. Several lawmakers, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana ate at The Big Board in a show of solidary.

Locals, meanwhile, do not appear to be reacting as favorably. City-State Brewery, which distributes beer to over 350 establishments across the D.C. region, said it would stop selling to The Big Board until management changes. The local brewery’s founder James Waner says he just couldn’t associate with anyone who gives fodder to right-wing conservatives who spread disinformation about COVID-19 and D.C. statehood.

“Fox News, particularly Laura Ingraham, is a vector of disinformation, and they are hostile to D.C. residents — to our ability to govern ourselves,” he tells DCist/WAMU. “They probably believe in the old racist trope that these are people who can’t govern themselves. And that’s certainly how the interview on Laura Ingraham was framed — focus on carjackings, not on mask mandates.”

Several restaurants and bars around the H Street Corridor where The Big Board is located required patrons to show proof of vaccination before the mayoral order. Most people have complied with the order, multiple business owners tell DCist/WAMU. Owner Doron Petersan of Fare Well, a vegan diner across the street from The Big Board, has long required patrons to be vaccinated, because she says she wants to keep the community safe.

“We’re part of the public health system,” Petersan tells DCist/WAMU. “Being a restaurant, we are overseen by the health department. We follow regulations and we feel that this is just like any other public health regulation that we follow.”

It’s been frustrating for Petersan to see The Big Board raise tens of thousands of dollars in a GoFundMe campaign after flouting COVID-19 regulations. She says one of her staff members lost several family members to COVID-19 and struggled to cover funeral costs. She says she wishes D.C. did more to support businesses that are trying to keep the community safe and following COVID-19 regulations.