Jeffrey Bank looked south from 50th Street and Broadway on Wednesday afternoon and saw nothing but desolation. “There’s nobody in Times Square,” he said. “Not a soul in sight.”

As the CEO of Alicart Restaurant Group, which owns Virgil’s and Carmine’s, Bank said his two eateries in Times Square have been closed since March 13th of last year. The Upper West Side Carmine’s reopened a few months after the pandemic shut down NYC by switching to takeout. But his eateries in Times Square relied on theatergoers, tourists, and office workers who never came back.

“It's been brutal," he said. "I don't think there's a single restaurant that could tell you they had a good year. There might be some fast casuals or quick service that survived.” But he said full-service restaurants couldn’t make up for the losses they sustained during last spring’s shutdown by pivoting to takeout, or reopening with limited occupancy.

The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which was passed by House Democrats on Wednesday and will be signed by President Biden on Friday, offers the restaurant industry a targeted shot of relief. The package includes more than $28 billion that restaurants nationwide can use to pay rent, utilities, payroll, and other expenses.

At a virtual press conference Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the grants aren’t intended for big chains like Olive Garden. They’re worth up to $10 million per restaurant group and $5 million per individual restaurant. Eligibility is determined by the difference in sales between 2019 and 2020.

Restaurants benefitted from the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) in the two previous stimulus packages. But Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said the PPP had strict limits on how much aid could be applied toward rent and that 60 percent needed to be used on payroll to qualify for loan forgiveness. Grants, he said, are much less complicated.

“This is incredibly hopeful news for New York City’s restaurants and bars, who will now receive direct grants to help pay rent, payroll, vendors expenses and more,” he said.

Restaurants were among the city’s hardest hit industries during the pandemic because of occupancy limits, shutdowns and their reliance on tourism. On Wednesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York City restaurants could expand to 50 percent occupancy on March 19th. Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, praised the new stimulus bill for being carefully crafted.

“The federal program targets those areas that need the most assistance, that suffered the greatest damage from the forced shutdown and from customers not being willing or able to patronize them,” she said.

Bank, whose Alicart group owns nine restaurants from New York to Las Vegas, said his workforce dropped from 1,300 a year ago to about 550 at the four sites that remain open. He acknowledged a $10 million grant couldn’t make up for all his losses, but said he’d spend it on employees and rent. “Everything helps,” he said, adding it would do even more for mom and pop restaurants. He also predicted this third stimulus would keep the industry going through what many open will be the final stretch of the pandemic.

“Our country should be vaccinated by the end of June,” he said, hopefully. “So you’re only talking another couple of months and if we’ve all held on that long we can all hold on, you know, maybe another month or two.”