While most COVID-era business-rescue plans have tapered off, one that American Express created to help struggling restaurants during the pandemic is not only thriving, but is doubling its reach this year.
Backing Historic Small Restaurants, a promotion Amex
Each qualifying restaurant will receive a grant of $50,000 — $10,000 more than in previous years — bringing Amex's total investment in this year's program to $2.5 million, from $1 million last year, underscoring the program's momentum and expanding mission, even as the pandemic's effects fade.
"This program started during a time of need during Covid, when certain historic restaurants — some more than 100 years old — were in danger of closing, but we've seen such strong demand and community response that it made sense to expand it," said Alice Lin Fabiano, Amex's vice president of global philanthropy, social impact and corporate sustainability.
Fabiano, who joined Amex in 2022 after nearly a decade in a similar post at Johnson & Johnson, said the restaurant-rescue program has several dimensions to help historic restaurants. To qualify, recipients must explain how the funding will be used to improve the facade or structure of an existing restaurant in a historic district or neighborhood.
Qualifying restaurants have a compelling or inclusive story about cuisine and community in America, and must document the improvements they make in the months after receiving the grants. Nominations closed at the end of March and recipients will be notified in May.
As in past years, this year's grantees will receive cash to refurbish their facilities with help from the National Trust, and they will also receive a free year of use of Resy, Amex's restaurant-management and reservations software, plus business-management coaching and mentoring.
"It's a set of tools and in-kind resources to help small businesses overcome barriers," she said.
Amex's ability to convert a COVID-era relief program into an ongoing and expanding promotion is unique, compared with many short-term corporate pandemic initiatives that have long since ended, said Drew Kerr, founder of Manhattan-based crisis prevention advisory firm Four Corners Group.
"Amex needs restaurants — without them Amex would not have a significant portion of their revenue base — so their incentive to help keep restaurants open could not be more vital to their bottom line," Kerr said.
Even restaurants that survived the pandemic are at risk of closing now because of the long-range effects of COVID, overdue and rising rent, and skyrocketing costs, he noted.
"Amex's decision to expand the historic restaurants program is of one piece with Small Business Saturday, which they founded 15 years ago and has become a major part of the firm's branding," he said.
One factor that has helped the program gain visibility was Amex's decision in 2022 to solicit nominations from the public for restaurants that might qualify for grants. Within two years, the total number of restaurants nominated for grants quadrupled, to 6,700 this year, Fabiano said.
Past recipients included the Pekin Noodle Parlor in Butte, Montana, which used some of its grant funds to repaint the restaurant's facade, originally constructed in 1909. Penn Brewery, in the Pittsburgh region, used its grant funds to turn
Local and state building-preservation partners are pitching in by providing restaurant operators with guidance on the grant application, finding preservation-sensitive contractors and helping to scope and manage exterior projects and arranging community engagement.
Amex so far has extended grants to restaurants in 37 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and the firm expects this year's crop of grantees to further extend the program's geographic reach.
The card network has structured the promotion to ensure grantees take on manageable projects. A lump sum of $40,000 must be used toward exterior improvements with up to $10,000 available for general operating costs and other business-related expenses. Recipients get the final $10,000 of the grant when the project is documented as complete after submitting photos and descriptions of milestones with the goal of all tasks finished by Dec. 16, 2024.
Even groups that lease restaurants may participate with building owners' permission, Amex said.
In a related move, Amex said in December 2023 that it would provide $12.75 million in additional grants and support to help struggling small businesses build resilience to and recover from natural disasters.
"We see this program continuing to evolve to support restaurants' longevity and growth," Fabiano said.
