These Brookline Restaurants Got Restaurant Revitalization Money

BROOKLINE, MA — Restaurants in Brookline were among the more than 2,500 in Massachusetts who 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 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 Wednesday.

In Brookline, grants were given to:

• Catering by Andrew Inc, $3,358,541.00
• Stoked Pizza Cambridge LLC, $1,125,216.00
• Forklift Catering LLC, $1,010,543.30
• The Barbecue Lamb Brothers, $906,230.00
• S&R Hospitality LLC, $884,097.83
• Zaftig Inc, $832,281.00
• D2 Restaurants LLC, $729,601.51
• JJAZ Restaurant Inc, $481,239.35
• M&L Hospitality LLC, $385,134.20
• J&Z Foods Corporation, $372,297.80
• Matt Murphy's Pub Inc, $356,655.57
• Casey Hannon LLC, $332,138.03
• ly duong and to Inc, $276,793.00
• Caroni LLC, $275,076.00
• Sivika Restaurant Group LLC, $248,397.22
• Ritz Asia Inc, $237,028.00
• HAPPY GIRL BAKERY LLC, $234,164.93
• KOWAYA LLC, $206,353.83
• Ivory Pearl LLC, $183,385.05
• Laureen MacLean, $183,069.58
• BROOKLINE VILLAGE BURRITO CORPORATION, $173,845.00
• American Juice Inc, $161,374.00
• Genki Harvard 2014 Inc, $147,541.00
• Yawa Enterprises Inc, $126,664.00
• Ganko Group LLC, $122,217.30
• JOTA INC, $111,203.00
• Uda Corporation Inc, $111,042.00
• CHIHARU INC, $110,577.92
• Knight Moves Cafe Inc, $106,466.00
• NONG YING RESTAURANT INC, $103,370.80
• Brothers & Sisters Company LLC, $77,238.24
• Gantetsu LLC, $73,561.04
• BOTTEGA DI CAPRI, $70,531.00
• Edmond & CO LLC, $69,268.00
• PCTERRACE LLC, $60,377.54
• Fat Duck LLC, $55,011.94
• Zhu Vegan Kitchen Inc, $42,703.00
• AHVM Inc, $31,837.50
• SuperRich INC, $30,122.13
• Sundae drive, $29,654.00
• Fare share inc, $22,128.00
• Drive-By Pies LLC, $15,183.46
• Fuji Restaurant Corporation, $6,154.28

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 will be "disabled" 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 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.”