Eric Flannery, co-owner of The Big Board restaurant in Washington, D.C., is threatening to sue the city government for forcing his restaurant to close two weeks ago.
The Big Board also had its liquor license revoked on Jan. 28 for repeated noncompliance with the city’s now-rescinded vaccine mandate requirements for restaurants. A few days later, on Feb. 3, The Big Board closed its doors.
In January, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser instituted a vaccine mandate, ordering bars and restaurants to ask patrons to prove they received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or to show a negative COVID-19 test result.
On Feb. 14, Bowser rescinded that order. However, Flannery’s restaurant remains closed.
The restaurateur first made headlines when The Big Board posted a tweet Jan. 13 implying it would not comply with Bowser’s order.
“I just said everybody is welcome,” Flannery said Thursday on the “Fox & Friends” show. “It’s nothing controversial. It’s just what every bar and restaurant in the United States should be doing—welcoming everybody.”
Flannery is represented in his lawsuit by Robert Alt, president and CEO of The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus, Ohio-based nonpartisan, free-market public policy think tank.
“The issue here is, the emergency orders have been dragging on now for two years. That’s not an emergency,” Alt told “Fox & Friends.” “We’re trying to persuade the alphabet-soup agencies to go ahead and reinstate his licenses. And if they fail to do so immediately, then The Buckeye Institute will see them in court.”
Shortly after Bowser’s order went into effect on Jan. 15, The Big Board quickly ran afoul of the city government, which repeatedly sent inspectors to the restaurant to issue citations for failing to comply with the order. Eventually, the restaurant shut its doors on Feb. 3.
The story drew national attention when Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., along with Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., visited Flannery and his staff at the restaurant Feb. 1 to show their support.
“It’s a big decision—civil resistance, civil disobedience, when you lose your livelihood,” Paul told The Daily Signal. “I’m very supportive of what he’s doing, because he’s saying, ‘My individual liberty is worth the price of me even losing my business.’”
On Feb. 14, a day before the mandate was supposed to enter its second phase, requiring restaurant and bar patrons to prove they had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, Bowser announced she was ending it, effective immediately. As of Feb. 15, bars and restaurants are no longer required to ask about customers’ vaccination status.
That hasn’t changed the fact that Flannery’s restaurant is still closed—and with no relief in sight.
For the past two weeks, he’s been attending meetings with the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration to try and get his liquor license back. So far, he’s had no success.
“It’s a lot,” said an emotional Flannery in the “Fox & Friends” interview.
The Big Board currently has a fundraiser on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo. A description for the fundraiser reads: “We believe that this decision to shut down our family-owned restaurant—which recently celebrated 10 years on H St.—during a time when so many small businesses have already suffered, was unjust and that we are not alone in this belief.” As of Feb. 17, the campaign has raised $20,537.
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