UWS Restaurants Got $72M From Federal Stimulus: Find Out Which

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — More than 140 Upper West Side restaurants, caterers and other food spots received grants from the federal government as part of the stimulus package passed in January, according to newly released data.

Ranging from $31,000 to $5 million, the grants came from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a key component of the American Rescue Act. The recipients were revealed Friday by the Small Business Administration in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Upper West Side did not have a restaurant receive the maximum $10 million grant.

All told, 143 businesses on the Upper West Side got money, amounting to more than $72 million combined. The government's $28.6 billion fund closed at the end of June after granting less than a third of the more than 370,000 requests made nationwide.

On the Upper West Side, the average grant was $507,846. Some recipients are household names — Mermaid Inn, V & T Pizza, Alice's Teacup — while others are more obscure. The top $5 million grant winner was T & W Restaurant Inc., which is the company that runs the Chinese restaurant Shun Lee West at 43 West 65th Street.

Here are the 10 Upper West Side businesses that got the biggest grants:

• T & W Restaurant Inc. (owner of Shun Lee West), 43 West 65th Street: $5,000,000
• The Empire Rooftop LLC, 44 West 63rd Street: $3,340,821
• Streator Inc., (owner of Cafe Luxembourg), 200 West 70th Street: $2,515,089
• 329 Hospitality Group, (owner of ASSET), 329 Columbus: $2,494,412
• Sugar Factory Broadway, 1991 Broadway, $1,773,710
• Mermaid 88 LLC, (owner of Mermaid Inn), 570 Amsterdam: $1,579,885
• BT Restaurant Entreprises LLC, (owner of Tessa), 349 Amsterdam: $1,531,121
• Luoyang Uncle Inc., 928 Amsterdam: $1,488,089
• Renolta LLC, (owner of Nice Matin), 201 West 79th Street, $1,449,961
• 568 Amsterdam LLC, (owner of Sirenetta), 568 Amsterdam, $1,293,018

The Upper West Side eateries are among more than 27,000 in New York state that got Restaurant Revitalization grants, totaling more than $9.6 billion.

The fund was initially supposed to prioritize restaurants owned by women, veterans and members of other marginalized groups, but that aspect was halted after white business owners sued, alleging that the government was discriminating against them.

Below, scroll through the full list of Upper West Side spots that received federal grants. (Note that many are listed under business aliases, but searching the name on the state's liquor license database can reveal each one's identity.)

Patch reporter Nick Garber contributed to this story