These Milwaukee Restaurants Scored COVID Revitalization Money

MILWAUKEE, WI — Restaurants in Milwaukee were among the more than 2,095 in Wisconsin who received money from the Small Business Administration's Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which was passed by Congress last year as part of a sweeping coronavirus relief package.

A total of $379,302,899 in funding was given to Wisconsin restaurants. Around 300 restaurants in Milwaukee were awarded, with 16 being awarded over a million dollars.

But the 2,095 Wisconsin businesses that received funding under the program were just 36 percent of the 5,871 that applied to the program, which SBA is shutting down Wednesday.

In Milwaukee, grants were given to:

• Sazs Hospitality Inc. — $7,592,570.00
• The Lowlands Group LLC — $5,718,369.00
• Mary Bart LLC — $2,855,444.28
• Bucky Corral LLC — $2,518,194.50
• Major Goolsby's Inc. — $1,691,241.29
• Comet Caf Inc. — $1,595,466.40
• Aras LLC — $1,453,984.00
• MKE Events LLC — $1,253,871.00
• WSB - Grafton Inc. — $1,251,018.58
• Good City Brewing LLC — $1,236,484.00
• Water Street Brewer Inc. — $1,157,816.43
• Fuel Cafe 5th Street Inc. — $1,141,183.54
• Giri Corporation — $1,113,332.00
• MJE Inc. — $1,074,353.90
• The Wicked Hop LLC — $1,026,689.00
• The Hock Group LLC — $1,012,650.10

But restaurants across the country 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 a hundred thousand restaurants, the R.R.F. has made their future clear and stable, but for the more than 200,000 operators shut out of funding, receiving this letter today only heightens their fear and anger,” Sean Kennedy, a spokesman for the National Restaurant Association, told The New York Times. “We need Congress to act.”

In an email to applicants last month, the 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.

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