The federal government will begin taking applications from restaurants, bars and caterers on Monday at noon for nearly $29 billion in COVID-19 relief grants.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund, or RRF, will provide funding of up to $10 million per business and $5 million or less per location to make up for revenue losses during the pandemic.
The grants may be used to pay employee wages, mortgage and rent payments, utility bills, outstanding debts, construction of outdoor seating and other operating expenses. The money must be used by March 11, 2023.
Business owners are encouraged to register for an RRF account before the online application portal opens. They can register at restaurants.sba.gov, starting on Friday at 9 a.m. Owners receiving assistance with their applications from Square, Toast, Clover, NCR Corporation and other point-of-sale companies don’t need to register early.
Restaurants “are among the businesses that have been hardest hit and need support to survive,” said Isabella Casillas Guzman, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, which runs the RRF. “We are committed to equity and to ensure our smaller and underserved businesses, which have suffered the most, can access this critical relief, recover and grow more resilient.”
Guzman said until May 24 the agency will only process RRF applications from businesses that are owned by women, veterans or members of minority groups or are in poor communities.
In addition, $9.5 billion, or 33%, of the funding has been set aside for the smallest restaurants and bars with 2019 gross receipts of $1.5 million or less in 2019.
Wineries, brewpubs, bakeries and inns are eligible for RRF grants if 33% or more of their 2019 gross receipts were derived from on premise sales to consumers.
The RRF was established by Congress and President Joe Biden last month. More information is available at sba.gov/restaurants.
Separately, nearly 8,000 applications were submitted by independent movie theaters, museums, concert halls and other live performance spaces in the first 24 hours after SBA’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program reopened this week, said Matt Coleman, a spokesman for the agency’s Region II, which includes New York State.
The COVID relief program was suspended earlier this month after its online portal was unable to accept any applications.
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