Tourism Madrid, to burst during the Pilar bridge: "It has been an odyssey to find a hotel night"
Event A police chase ends with a car jammed into a restaurant on the A-2
Center The last hotel neighborhood of Madrid is recovered: the Luis Candelas bandit leaves the ERTE
Miguel Ángel Martín, owner with his brother José Luis of the Puerta Grande restaurant (Pedro Heredia street, 23), remembers the days of confinement when he bought the entire Fuente del Berro neighborhood. «You
had to be very patient. It was torturous
. Some asked us to change things for them. Like the 80-year-old lady who didn't want the stew meat because it came packaged. Or they didn't trust the kilo of apples. They counted the apples we were carrying to check whether or not there was a kilo.
Sitting at one of the tables of the bar that more than a bar is the headquarters of part of the subscribers of Las Ventas, in which the Hispanic Day bullfight is celebrated today, the last of the Autumn Fair, he
plays down the importance of the demands of your neighbors
.
«They are old.
They didn't understand it
.
For four months, he traveled from Leganés to Madrid "seven days a week" to organize errands for his clients.
-My wife called it the NGO.
In August he told me: "Close the NGO and we are going on vacation."
Now he speaks of the feat as the last service to the neighborhood, in which he has been 32 years.
«Not even the return of the bulls to Las Ventas lifts the restaurant
.
Our business is down 70%.
In addition, they do not let us put a terrace.
So I have put the place up for sale.
It is unfeasible.
Before we had up to 120 people in the living room.
We had reached an agreement with a Chinese travel agency.
People don't want to eat indoors and foreigners don't come.
All that no longer exists
.
"It has been very sacrificed"
He is 55 years old.
"I want to live.
This has been very sacrificed ”, he smiles.
It all started when in March 2020, after closing, he received a call from the neighbor for whom they prepared food every day.
"It is blind.
He asked me what was going to become of him.
I told him not to worry
.
Without authorization, he returned to the restaurant.
"I passed the police controls telling the truth."
He posted posters on the portals offering himself to the rest of the neighbors.
“They were aimed at people who found it difficult to move, the elderly, the sick, well, there was a fear of the virus.
It was normal then.
There was little information.
We volunteered to do the things they couldn't. '
In a notebook he wrote down the orders by the hour.
«I became popular in the neighborhood by coming and going with the bags.
In the end, I had to buy a car.
The phone also rang when he got home.
«Look, I was already with my family and I said
no
.
Some were angry.
When word got out, they even called us from Vicálvaro.
I also had to say no.
We could not.
We did everything on foot ».
From the territory of altruism that he delimited by Avenida de los Toreros and Marqués de Zafra, he only left to help a Russian woman who was infected in the Carmen neighborhood.
«She lived confined with her son.
They called me.
I didn't mind going.
I put on the mask and brought him food.
He left the bags for those infected on the landing.
I never got it.
Thrown in the storm
Sometimes he was late and was told off.
"As there were so many queues.
Pharmacies were the worst.
One day I was waiting for an hour and a half.
Well, they reproached me for it.
That has really stressed me out.
One day, someone asked him for a loaf of bread that was not from Mercadona.
"I refused.
How could I be queuing at a bakery.
Not to mention
»
.
In Filomena, he reactivated operations.
He shoved snow, "helped by the young people," and went back to the supermarkets buying food for those who could not leave home.
«One day I was thrown.
The commuter stopped.
Luckily my brother-in-law, a taxi driver, drove by and was able to take me back.
Maintains food orders at home.
Although various fan associations meet at the Puerta Grande, the restaurant is surrounded by the new bars in the area with more atmosphere.
«They can have customers on the street.
This is a wreck.
It is unbearable to continue like this.
Do you think someone would have done the same as you?
-I guess yes.
The people I associate with do favors for each other.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Mercadona
Madrid
Residences
SeriesChris Brancato, creator of 'Narcos': "We must have freedom to create stories of bad guys, not censor ourselves for their impact on people"
Politics Aznar joins Ayuso's criticism of the Pope for asking Mexico for "forgiveness": "Indigenism is the new communism"
The leader of a different movement The yellow vest of the blackout has a store in Carmona
See links of interest
La Palma news
Last News
What
Work calendar
Holidays Madrid
Home THE WORLD TODAY
Real Zaragoza - Huesca