San Diego Hospitality Industry Recipients Of The Most Substantial Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans


December 8, 2020

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) issued more than $700 billion in forgivable business loans under its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The SBA recently released data on who benefitted from its pandemic relief programs. Here are the San Diego hospitality and restaurant industry's recipients of the most substantial PPP loans.

Last week, after being sued by nearly a dozen media outlets, the SBA released information on which entities received PPP funds and the files show that nearly 60,000 San Diego County businesses received more than $6 billion in PPP loans. Being the local restaurant and hospitality industry is the primary focus of coverage on SanDiegoVille, we reviewed the data to see which businesses in that sector received the most PPP money. We also focused on San Diego hotels, casinos, event venues, and area public relations companies with mostly hospitality industry clients. 

Three local restaurant groups received the largest individual sum offered ($10 million), including Islands Restaurants, which has 7 outposts in San Diego County, Outback Steakhouse franchisee Cerca Trova Restaurant Group, and Rubio's, which filed for bankruptcy this past fall. The recipient of the most PPP money may be Panera Bread franchisee, Manna Development, which reportedly received at least $17,988,410 under 4 different business entities. As for local hotel groups, the largest payout of $9,220,400 was made to Evans Hotels, which operates Bahia Resort in Mission Beach, Catamaran Resort in Pacific Beach, and The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla. 

San Diego's most prolific collective of independent restaurants, Cohn Restaurant Group, received at least $9,452,230 under 6 separate business entities. Other restaurant groups that received PPP loans include The Brigantine Group ($6,830,900), Consortium Holdings ($3,538,000), Puesto ($3,618,725)Verant Group ($3,144,600), Puffer Malarkey ($2,725,829), Social Syndicate ($2,479,199), RMD Group ($2,182,193), SDCM ($1,389,000) and Trust Restaurant Group ($968,900). Rise & Shine Restaurant Group, the company behind Breakfast Republic and other area concepts, also received at least $2,711,600, although it did not claim the funds would benefit any specific number of employees, according to the SBA list data. Rise & Shine even reportedly took $180,400 for its El Jardin concept parent corporation, despite such restaurant being non-operational during the majority of the pandemic. El Jardin is currently in the process of becoming a third Death By Tequila. 

Some San Diego craft breweries also received substantial payouts, including Ballast Point Brewing's parent company Kings & Convicts ($6,102,147), Karl Strauss Brewing Company ($5,569,000), Modern Times Beer ($2,215,200), and Green Flash Brewing ($1,232,002). Surprisingly, San Diego's largest craft brewery, Stone Brewing Co., does not appear to have taken any PPP money. San Diego-based yeast manufacturer White Labs obtained a $1,195,800 PPP loan. Even San Diego MAGAzine, which went dark for a large portion of the pandemic and reportedly laid off the majority of its staff in March, received $560,947 in funds, alleging all 38 employees would benefit from the loan. Even a San Diego-based hospitality public relations firm, J Public Relations, received more than a million dollars in funding.

Although many San Diego restaurants received federal funding and have been able to survive the pandemic thus far, more than 100 San Diego County bars and restaurants have shuttered over this devastating year. The National Restaurant Association announced this week that 10,000 restaurants could close in the next three weeks, in addition to the 110,000 that have already shuttered in 2020. Due to the latest regional stay home order, which went into effect on December 7, San Diego restaurants will be unable to offer onsite dining until at least December 28, likely later. Meanwhile, most eateries have exhausted their PPP funds with no additional relief expected before the year's end. 

Below is a list of members of San Diego's hospitality, restaurant and events industry that received more than $1Million in PPP funds, followed by a breakdown of what some of San Diego largest independent restaurant groups obtained:

AMOUNT - COMPANY - #JOBS REPORTED
SAN DIEGO INDEPENDENT RESTAURANT GROUPS WITH SUBSIDIARIES

$3,117,430 - KIRSCHCOHN, INC. - 500 
$1,912,000 - JJ EATS, INC. - 284
$1,855,400 - TUPELO RESTAURANTS, INC. - 329
$1,511,600 - HARD WORK TOO, INC. - 287 
$776,400 - HARD WORK, INC. - 218
$252,400 - DMD3 LA MESA, INC. - 49

Consortium Holdings - $3,538,000
$1,069,800 - LATE MORNINGS, INC. (Born & Raised, Morning Glory) - 3
$790,900 - IRONSIDE INC. (Ironside Fish & Oyster) - 4
$531,500 - SEKSCOBRA, INC (Craft & Commerce) - 3
$362,700 - SODA & SWINE INC (Soda & Swine Liberty Station, Fortunate Son, ) - 4
$256,100 - RAISED BY WOLVES VENTURES INC. - 2
$202,300 - UNDERBELLY HOLDINGS INC. (Underbelly North Park) 22
$163,300 - HARA NO SHITA DE HOLDING, INC (Underbelly Little Italy) - 11
$161,400 - DOG & PONY, INC. (Polite Provisions) - 2

Verant Group - $3,144,600
$1,147,400 - SD6M GROUP LLC (Barleymash) - 141
$823,300 - 860 GARNET OPERATIONS LLC (Maverick's Beach Club) - 120
$324,300 - BEACH & BAY BEVERAGE CO., LLC (Tavern) - 60
$296,200 - 555 MARKET AND 6TH LLC (The Smoking Gun) - 52
$281,600 - BEACH PARTNERS LLC (Sandbar Sportsbar) - 50
$271,800 - NP PARTNERS, LLC (True North) - 60

Puffer Malarkey - $2,725,829
$854,126 - EATERY GREEN LLC - 175
$722,116 - STELLAR BLEU LLC - 157
$574,298 - SEA GREEN LLC - 86
$575,289 - PACIFIC COAST EATERY LLC - 81

$275,400 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC EAST VILLAGE, LLC - 0
$241,200 - CA BREAKFAST REPUBLIC, INC. - 0
$238,400 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC-PACIFIC BEACH, LP - 0
$236,500 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC OC LLC - 0
$228,700 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC MISSION VALLEY, LLC - 0
$206,800 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC LIBERTY, INC. - 0
$197,300 - JEDL RESTAURANTS, LLC - 0
$188,400 - EL JARDIN RESTAURANT, LLC
$184,900 - FEAST AND FAREWAY LLC - 0
$152,700 - FIG TREE LIBERTY, INC. - 0
$150,600 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC ENCINITAS, LLC - 0
$140,600 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC OCEAN BEACH, LLC - 0
$138,300 - FIG TREE CAFE LP - 0
$131,800 - BREAKFAST REPUBLIC CARMEL VALLEY, LLC - 0

Social Syndicate - $2,479,199
$466,500 - PIER PRESSURE LLC (Wonderland) - 0
$364,200 - PIER PRESSURE (OB Surf Lodge)- 0
$352,700 - FLINN SPRINGS INN, LLC (Grand Ole BBQ Flinn Springs) - 56
$323,400 - THE LOCAL GROUP LLC (The Local Pacific Beach) - 0
$261,800 - RESERVOIR GROUP LLC (Rabbit Hole) - 0
$251,312 - TENACIOUS BREWING COMPANY, LLC (The Local Downtown) - 0
$220,600 - EIGHTH & MARKET LLC (Bootlegger) - 0
$101,850 - BLUE WATER OB LLC (Blue Water Seafood Ocean Beach) - 0
$91,227 - UNICORN LOUNGE LLC (Rosie O'Grady's) - 0
$24,210 - BADGER FINANCIAL LLC (Rosie O'Grady's, La Dona) - 0
$21,400 - B11 EQUITIES LLC (Rosie O'Grady's, La Dona) - 0

RMD Group - $2,182,193
$962,801 - 535 5TH LLC (Rustic Root, Volcano Rabbit)- 181
$479,335 - 376 5TH LLC (Lumi, Huntress) - 140
$426,500 - MARKETSB LLC (Side Bar, Ciro's) - 92
$313,557 - RMD GROUP LLC - 14

SDCM - $1,389,000
$689,000 - KETTNER HOUSE LP (Kettner Exchange, Devils Dozen) - 131
$449,800 - FIREHOUSE RESTAURANT INC (Firehouse) - 95
$232,700 - THE GRASS SKIRT INC (The Grass Skirt, Good Time Poke) - 61
$17,500 SDCM INC - 1

$341,300 - SBR3 LP (Fort Oak) - 152
$263,300 - SBR LP (Trust) - 108
$240,800 - SBR4 LP (Cardellino) - 91
$123,500 - SBR2 LP (Rare Society) - 101

NBC 7 San Diego also published a report about San Diego businesses that received PPP funds and their online article has a searchable function to look up the above companies.