D.C. officials said Thursday they are suspending the liquor license of an H Street bar accused of violating of the city’s vaccine and mask regulations.

       Conservatives rallied to defend the Big Board earlier this month after it received two $1,000 citations as well as written and verbal warnings for alleged unmasked employees and not checking customers’ vaccine status. A District mandate requiring that bar patrons show proof they have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine went into effect Jan. 15.

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       On Wednesday, the city’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board voted to refer Big Board to the D.C. attorney general to draft a suspension notice, documents show. The D.C. attorney general’s office confirmed Thursday that it was drafting the suspension notice.

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       Jared Powell, a spokesman for the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA), said in an email that establishments that receive suspension notices “cannot sell, serve, or allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages, nor can they purchase or take delivery of alcoholic beverages from wholesalers or manufacturers while the liquor license is suspended.” Licensees may request hearings on suspensions within three days of their receipt, Powell said.

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       Managers of the Big Board couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

       D.C.’s coronavirus vaccination requirement: What you need to know

       The Big Board’s ABRA case report shows that charges that the bar violated indoor mask and vaccine requirements were “substantiated.”

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       “Specifically, employees and the owner were not wearing facemasks; patrons were entering the establishment not wearing facemasks; the establishment was not checking for proof of vaccination, and did not post the required signage,” the report said of an inspector’s visit on Saturday.

       As thousands of anti-vaccine mandate protesters gathered in D.C. this past weekend, the Big Board tweeted Saturday that “all are welcome.”

       “We understand that not everybody agrees with this message and we fully support your right to hold and express that opinion,” the bar tweeted.

       Conservatives defend D.C. bar under investigation for violating vaccine rules

       Eric Flannery, the bar’s owner, spoke with the inspector, D.C. police and other officials during the inspection, according to the report.

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       “[H]e is here to violate me for not following the Mayor’s Order,” Flannery said of the inspector, the report said. Flannery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

       Asked Thursday if she felt the Big Board should be shut down if it continues to skirt the mandate, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) responded: “I’d like the business to comply. … We don’t want to shut anybody down — that’s how we’ve approached this through this 20-something months of this pandemic. We want to give people support, advice, supplies, help with whatever they need, but we do need them to follow the regulations.”

       Bowser noted that ABRA does not only respond to complaints, dispelling suggestions that the business is being targeted unfairly.

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       “[ABRA officials] are in and out of establishments nightly,” she said.

       D.C. is requiring vaccines to enter restaurants and gyms. In most of its suburbs, it’s a very different story.

       As the Big Board awaits city action, a crowdfunding campaign to support it begun by Henry Rodgers, a reporter for the conservative Daily Caller, had raised nearly $15,000 for the bar by Thursday morning.

       “Donate money to Big Board, fighting against vaccine mandates in Washington DC, a place where no one else will stand up to the tyranny,” the campaign description read. Rodgers did not respond to requests for comment.