The Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association (VRLTA) announced that nine Fairfax County Restaurants were recipients of the 2021 DoorDash Restaurant Operator Relief Grant program. These restaurants, along with the thousands of other businesses in Fairfax County have been hard hit by the pandemic shutdown. 

"Due to social distancing and business and office closures, we lost big chunk of our business, specially lunch time business," commented Quaiser Aziz of Spice Town Inc located in Herndon who lost nearly 30% of its revenue.  

Each business was awarded $3500, which they will use to pay down debt, purchase new equipment, fund salaries and enhance their marketing efforts. Eight of these restaurants were also recipients of the Fairfax RISE grant that Fairfax County offered in summer of 2020. 

Grant criteria included businesses with no more than three locations with 50 or fewer employees and annual gross revenue of $3 million or less for the location applied for, with a brick-and-mortar location, that experienced a reduction in revenue, financial stress, or disrupted operations from March 2020 through December 2020. Over 690 restaurants in Virginia applied for the grant. 

The sentiment of DC Steakholders owner Gurpreet Kaur, represents many of these restaurants feelings about the pandemic and their place in the community. "DC Steakholders is not only a restaurant, but for many people, it has been a sanctuary, a second home, a community meeting place, and a family.  We are determined to stick around so that me and my team can continue learning and serving our community..."

2021 DoorDash Restaurant Operator Relief Grant Recipients
(* indicates RISE recipient)

• Pho 2000, Herndon*
• Spice Town, Herndon*
• Sully's Pour House, Herndon*
• Sprout Café, Reston*
• Crepe Amour, Vienna *
• Herndon Donuts, Herndon*
• Meaza Ethiopian Restaurant, Falls Church*
• DC Steakholders, Falls Church*
• Mazadar Restaurant, Fairfax