July 29th, 2024 by WCBC Radio

American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation today announced the 2024 recipients of the Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant program. 50 small restaurants in the U.S. will receive a $50,000 grant each to help them upgrade, renovate, and grow their businesses. The grant program significantly expanded its reach this year, doubling the number of grantees, including in 13 new states, and increasing the total grant funding to $2.5 million, up from $1 million in prior years.

Curtis' Coney Island on Liberty Street was chosen as the Maryland recipient of the grant and will receive $50,000 for renovations to their business.  Owner Gino Giatris says the grant will, in the long run, benefit the entire community.

In its fourth year, the program now has reached 125 historic small restaurants in every U.S. state, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. American Express launched the Backing Historic Small Restaurants program in 2021 in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to support historic and culturally significant restaurants during the pandemic. The program has since expanded in its scale and financial support to continue helping independently owned small restaurants serve their local communities.

In addition to financial support, Resy, American Express’s restaurant reservation platform, will offer each grantee a year of complimentary access to Resy OS restaurant management software, to help streamline their costs and boost operations.

“Small restaurants are vital to our communities, and their impact perseveres, as they continue to innovate and make their neighborhoods more vibrant and connected,” said Madge Thomas, Head of Corporate Sustainability at American Express. “This year’s grantees represent the rich traditions and iconic stories of communities across the U.S. I’m so proud that we’re able to help them grow and continue to build their legacy.”

“Over the course of four years, our partnership with American Express has supported more than one hundred small, independent restaurants across the country, each with a distinctive history, representing a wide array of cuisines,” said Carol Quillen, CEO of the National Trust. “Equally important is what these restaurants share. They are beloved gathering places in their neighborhoods. In many cases, they have been run for generations by the same family. Empowering small businesses that hold decades of stories is one powerful way that preservation strengthens local economies as it serves local communities.”