Marshall Weston, president and CEO of the Restaurant Association of Maryland, told C4 and Bryan Nehman that the number of restaurants affected by the pandemic was not as high as previously predicted.

In 2020, the association predicted that 40% of restaurants would close because of the pandemic. In 2021, they changed that number to 20% of restaurants. And, on Tuesday, he said it could be between 15-18%.

“Thankfully, we did not see the number of restaurant closures that we were predicting,” Weston said. “The closure rate is probably closer to 15%, maybe 18% of all the restaurants in the state of Maryland that ended up closing because of the pandemic.”

Weston said that the restaurants that were able to hold on did so with help from state, local and federal government with grants that were targeted to restaurants.... Read More: WBAL