The protagonists of the film Middle-aged scoundrelsby Woody Allen, they organize a bank robbery which leads them to use a biscuit shop as a cover which turns out to be a success. Something similar seems to have happened to VIPs. He opened restaurants preceded by stores selling books, VHS and DVD films, newspapers, magazines, electronic accessories and toys, which more than overshadowed his famous pancakes and cream, milkshakes, hamburgers and his club sandwich. One business concept after another that hasn’t caught on, as in some supermarkets imported from Mexico pharmacy 24 hours. That failure led to the VIPS chain of establishments. A duo formed by a restaurant and a shop that allowed Madrid to eat a hamburger and buy a book after midnight. A business that made the capital resemble New York in the films of Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese.
The white VIPS letters on a red background served as a beacon that marked the way day and night for hungry people who had forgotten a detail or were craving something. VIPs were and are in many areas of the city – AZCA, Salamanca, Chamartín, Arturo Soria… – and their long hours, from Monday to Sunday, between the first coffee and almost the last drink, meant that, despite being considered elegant places, they ultimately ended up sharing a bar and a table with employees, workers and representatives of many urban tribes. Celebrities also frequented them: Lola Flores, Javier Marías, Ana Obregón, Ray Loriga, Alaska, Mario Vaquerizo, Dj Nano, David Gistau. A VIPS could be a still from a Pedro Almodóvar film.
The VIPS landed in via Julián Romea in Madrid in 1969, twelve years before McDonald’s. It was introduced by Mexican businessman Plácido Arango. A type of activity that fits into that wide space between fast food and haute cuisine. When he arrived in Spain twenty years ago, Mexican chef Roberto Ruiz worked in the kitchen of this group, the first of his nationality to obtain a Michelin star in Europe thanks to Punto MX (closed in 2020). He now rides the Barracuda MX more calmly.
“The gastronomic idea was to bring what wasn’t there, but adapt it to local taste,” says Raquel. Martín González, Brand Manager of VIPS, sitting at the table of one of the premises located in what was once the historic Hontanares Cafeteria, on Avenida de América. Hence that combination of burgers, club sandwiches and milkshakes typical of the United States with spoon and fork dishes, such as lentils and hake. Currently, the so-called atypical dishes have been added to the classic dishes, such as carbonara from Soria, with torreznos typical of that province and flakes of parmesan; the VIPS Wellington, a puff pastry filled with beef, ham, cheddar cheese, mushroom duxelle and Dijon mustard, accompanied by mashed potatoes and cauliflower; gyoza tail and cheek or La Villaroy, chicken breast with béchamel breaded in southern style with fried egg and drizzled with honey.Srirachaaccompanied by sweet potatoes and special VIPS sauce.
Many of the VIPs in the collective imagination of the people of Madrid have closed. That of López de Hoyos, for example, is only seen in José Luis Garci’s film, Continuous session. In the scene that was filmed there, Jesús Puente and Adolfo Marsillach appear arguing with the waiter. The VIPS on Velázquez Street closed its doors in May 2021, one year and three months after the death of David Gistau, a journalist and writer who transformed it into his private editorial office. He alternated writing with pancakes, coffee and meetings with colleagues and friends. Bret Easton Ellis, if he had known about VIPS, would almost certainly have included it in one of his novels.
Design places where you can read the newspaper early in the morning
In the 1980s, Catalan design was in fashion. Everything modern was designed by the architects of that community: shops, bars, restaurants, etc. In this context, architect Juan Herreros, of Estudio Herreros, recalls that “the appearance of VIPs in Spain was a revolution. It seemed that they could be like the new great consumerist force of urban culture. A place where American and Mexican cuisine mixed with cultural ingredients”. That that business group commissioned its studio to design the VIPS on Fuencarral street was a declaration of intent. Juan Herreros, at that time, was not the architect he is today (one of his last projects was the Munch Museum in Oslo), but he was an exponent of the young and experimental architecture of the moment. That blacksmith’s architecture was more innovative, exploring metallic and industrial resources.
The Fuencarral VIPS was a testing ground, it distanced itself from the aesthetic concepts that defined the others, in which red, white and black predominated. Unfortunately, it has long since stopped being a protected witness of Madrid’s Movida to become a supermarket in an elegant neighborhood.
In the shops that are no longer VIPs, many objects and books were sold, among others, from the Compactos Anagrama collection signed by authors of the Beat Generation and New Journalism or by Ryu Murakami and Kenzaburo Oé. Even if the real gems were big, difficult, rare, nice, cheap books. The so-called Coffee table booksmost of the Taschen publishing house. Books on art, design, architecture, photography, cinema, nautical, which have the function of decorating the tables on which they are placed. Books that are rarely opened and read less, but which can be bought there at any time.
In an article written by journalist Alberto Olmos entitled When Vips was the best bookstore in Madridyou can read: “It helps me that at VIPS those who know the most about books are the ones who come to buy them.” Shops which, due to their opening hours, could get ahead of the others and put new items on sale the evening before in the form of records, video game consoles, books and the first morning edition of newspapers. The latter was captured by the writer Juan José Millás in his novel wet paper. In one chapter, a character confesses to another his habit of reading the newspaper at dawn in a VIP.
It’s worth asking why those stores closed in 2018. “As a restaurant company, we provided this service to make life a little easier for customers and to be part of that culture. Over time, people have changed their consumption habits, thanks to online shopping and the new longer hours of other stores, such as Tiger’s. In order not to be left behind, we had to renew ourselves. The store we opened twenty years ago is no longer as trendy as the one they opened next door. We keep our essence, but innovate,” says Raquel Martín González.
VIPs will always be part of the capital’s culture and cultural landscape. Pensioners, widows, parents with their children after a medical visit or a lesson from the speech therapist, couples in love or on the verge of breaking up a relationship and groups of young people have passed through its premises, some dressed in leather jackets and others in Lacoste polo shirts. Iñaki Domínguez in his book Intersecular delinquentsof the Astiberri publishing house, says that the legendary Panda del Moco of the 1980s, made up of violent children of father and mother, was founded among the VIPs of the Paseo de la Habana.
Despite the footprint left by the shops, the heart of the business has always been the restaurants, where breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner were served. The latter is what a group of chefs did last year after an event at the Madrid Casino organized by the Montagud publishing house when they were late and the only place open that could cook something for them was a VIPS.
