These Beverly Restaurants Got Restaurant Revitalization Money

Beverly MA

14 July, 2021

1:03 PM

Description

BEVERLY, MA —Restaurants in Beverly were among the more than 2,500 in Massachusetts that received nearly $1 billion from the Small Business Administration's Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which was passed by Congress last year as part of a sweeping coronavirus relief package. The $993 million given to Massachusetts restaurants was the sixth-highest of any state in the country. And the average award of $338,000 to businesses in Massachusetts was the highest in the country. But the 2,556 Massachusetts businesses that received funding under the program were just 37.2 percent of the 6,867 that applied to the program, which SBA is shutting down this week. In Beverly, grants were given to: Beverly Farms Point Corporation — $893,547.00 P3 Partnerships LLC —$752,329.64 Pikeyllc — $422,975.00 Thirsty butcher hospitality llc —$383,085.00 Relish Catering and Events LLC — $342,050.90 G Wagner Restaurants — $332,768.00 ehalia inc — $263,284.00Atomic Cafe inc — $245,278.04 Beverly Restaurant Group LLC — $208,816.00Half Baked Cafe and Bakery LLC — $166,327.10Gusto Cafe — $159,769.89BNRbeverly Inc — $154,307.89Easystreet Operations Inc — $133,058.00Rossetti Hospitality Group LLC — $129,842.38Castle: A Board Game Cafe — $114,217.78Let Them Eat Cake LLC — $110,247.00Jennifer Carter — $106,300.00Frederic Lee Enterprses Inc — $92,080.00Yushan Food LLC —$64,219.28Thai hut Inc. — $63,442.00Flourish Bake Shop Inc — $54,899.30Kim Gregory — $38,895.00William J. Creed & Sons Ltd. — $29,569.00 But hundreds of Massachusetts restaurants are facing an uncertain future after the U.S. Small Business Administration said last month it was shutting down the Restaurant Revitalization Fund passed by Congress as part of the coronavirus relief package. "For these restaurant owners, it feels like insult on top of injury," Irene Li, the owner of Mei Mei Boston and the program manager of CommonWealth Kitchen's Restaurant Resiliency Fund, told the Boston Globe, which first reported this story. "It's like, 'This was supposed to be for us.'" In an email to applicants last month, SBA said the program was to be "disabled" on July 14. At that time, it will stop accepting applications. Nationally, the program has handed out grants to 105,000 restaurants, but another 265,000 applicants are still waiting. A bill to replenish the fund has been introduced in Congress, but it has not moved forward. "There are thousands of operators in Massachusetts that dutifully applied for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund on the first day that it was opened. Without Congressional action to replenish the fund, restaurants across Massachusetts will face an uncertain future," said Steve Clark of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. "Many are in the ironic position of seeing increased diners but are taking in less revenue as they battle with continuously rising food prices and lack of labor and staffing issues to fully reopen." Despite the restaurant industry lobbying for Congress to replenish the fund, lawmakers have been more focused on reaching a compromise on the Biden administration's infrastructure improvement bill. "It is a particular gut-punch for those operators that received a funding notice a few weeks ago, only to get a funding rejection letter last week," Clark said. "We need Congress to act on the RRF Replenishment Act to provide the SBA with the funds they need to complete this important mission."