Posted on 03/15/22
| News Source: WBAL
Marshall Weston, president and CEO of the Restaurant Association of Maryland, told C4 and Bryan Nehman that the number of restaurants affected by the pandemic was not as high as previously predicted.
In 2020, the association predicted that 40% of restaurants would close because of the pandemic. In 2021, they changed that number to 20% of restaurants. And, on Tuesday, he said it could be between 15-18%.
“Thankfully, we did not see the number of restaurant closures that we were predicting,” Weston said. “The closure rate is probably closer to 15%, maybe 18% of all the restaurants in the state of Maryland that ended up closing because of the pandemic.”
Weston said that the restaurants that were able to hold on did so with help from state, local and federal government with grants that were targeted to restaurants.
After two years, going into the third year of the pandemic, Weston said many restaurants have taken on more debt “hoping for better days,” but it appears those better days are a little ways away for some.
“One of the programs we were hoping was going to come through from the federal government, the restaurant revitalization fund, did not come through,” Weston said. “Now, we’re very concerned about all the restaurants that were promised and apparently are going to be left without.”
Weston called it “extremely frustrating” to be told, “we want to help small business, we want to support restaurants… but when it’s all said and done, we’ve gone through this process three times since June of last year, and the money does not show up.”
Weston also said “two out of every three restaurants that were approved for funds did not receive them, ” from the program.