VIP's (American restaurant) facts for kids
 |
|
| Industry | Restaurants |
|---|---|
| Fate | Closed |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Defunct | c. 1989 |
| Headquarters | Salem, Oregon, United States |
|
Number of locations
|
53 restaurants (1982) |
|
Area served
|
Five states in the Western U.S. |
| Revenue | $41.3 million (1981) |
| $984,500 (1981) | |
|
Number of employees
|
2,500 (1982) |
.jpg)
VIP's was a popular restaurant chain in the Western United States. It was also known as Vip's. The company started in 1968 and closed down in the late 1980s. Its main office was in Salem, Oregon.
At its busiest, VIP's had over 50 restaurants. This made it the biggest restaurant chain that started in Oregon. VIP's restaurants were similar to Denny's. They were known as "coffee shops" back then, but today we call them casual dining restaurants. Most VIP's locations were open 24 hours a day. They were usually found near freeways. The chain had restaurants in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, and northern California.
Contents
History of VIP's Restaurants
The very first VIP's Restaurant opened in 1968. It was located in Tualatin, Oregon, right next to an Interstate 5 freeway exit. Another VIP's opened that same year in Salem. However, the Salem location was not near a freeway. It did not make as much money as the Tualatin restaurant. Because of this, the company decided to build all future restaurants near freeways.
Growing the Restaurant Chain
By 1969, VIP's was growing outside of Oregon. Two new restaurants were being built in Seattle. By the end of 1971, the chain had grown to 15 restaurants. Keith Andler and Robert Smith founded the company, naming it VIP's Restaurants, Inc.
By 1982, the company ran 53 VIP's restaurants. They also owned four Mexican restaurants with different names. These included La Casa Real and Tortilla Machine. Together, all 57 restaurants made over $41 million in 1981. At its peak, VIP's was the largest restaurant chain based in Oregon.
Selling Off Restaurants
In 1982, VIP's Restaurants sold many of its locations. They sold 35 of their 53 VIP's restaurants to Denny's Inc.. The sale was for about $12 million. VIP's owners told The Oregonian newspaper that the offer from Denny's was "too good to pass up." Denny's also promised that all employees at these restaurants would keep their jobs. This sale included 19 locations in Washington and 16 in Oregon and Northern California.
In 1984, VIP's sold even more restaurants. They sold 16 locations to JB's Restaurants, a company from Salt Lake City. This sale included eight restaurants in Oregon, like the first one in Tualatin. It also included eight restaurants in Washington. After this sale, VIP's was left with only nine restaurants.
Changing to Hotels
By 1989, the last VIP's Restaurants had been sold. The company then started focusing on the hotel business. They changed their name to VIP's Industries Inc. The company still owned a few Tex-Mex restaurants called La Casa Real. Most of these were in the Portland–Vancouver metropolitan area. There were also locations in Fife, Washington, and Salem.
The entire La Casa Real chain, which had six restaurants, was sold in December 1994. It was bought by Chevy's, a company that was growing fast in the Portland area. Before this, VIP's Industries had opened a chain of hotels called Phoenix Inn. Later, these hotels were known as Phoenix Inn Suites. These hotels were for business travelers. They had six locations in the Portland area, including one in Vancouver, Washington. Phoenix Inn was a part of VIP's Industries. However, in 2006, VIP's sold the hotel chain. By then, it had grown to 13 hotels in Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. The new owners planned to keep running them as Phoenix Inn Suites.
