Cynde Tiches-Foster & John Foster · 2015 Honorees

Cynde Tiches Foster likes to say that she was born into her job but her husband, John, had a choice. He married into it. Whether by choice or by birth, the two of them can be found six days a week at Jimmy T’s, the small restaurant at the corner of 5th and East Capitol Streets that is loved by a loyal following of  neighbors and policemen and visited by European tourists carrying guide books that call it out as a must-visit eatery. Cynde scrambles eggs, makes sandwiches, and chats with the customers at the bar, while John brings in the supplies, shovels the snow, waits on tables and, behind the scenes, does all the paperwork, keeps the accounts and drives kids to and from school. It is a partnership that has been working since the early 1980s when Cynde’s father, Jimmy T, retired to Florida.

Cynde grew up in Vienna, Virginia where she lived with her mother but as soon as she was old enough she started coming into town weekends and during the summers to wait tables at her dad’s restaurant. He had grown up in the business too – for forty years his parents ran Tiches’ Tavern in downtown D.C. He managed his restaurant while also being employed as an elevator mechanic at the Library of Congress working days for two weeks, then nights for two weeks. Jimmy T’s place was open for dinner as well as breakfast and lunch and used to serve a Thanksgiving dinner for neighbors. After graduating from Marshall High School and spending a few years at Northern Virginia Community College studying art, Cynde yielded to the lure of the business and started working full time at Jimmy T’s. When her dad couldn’t find a new cook, she decided she could do that too.

John Foster grew up on a farm in south central Illinois and studied physics at Southern Illinois University. He was recruited into the military where he did systems design for all four branches; and it was this work that brought him to Washington in the early 1980s. He used to have early morning coffee and chat with Jimmy T. and thus, inevitably, met Cynde.

Since their marriage in 1991 Cynde and John have lived above the restaurant and have cooked and served thousands of meals. They have watched a generation of neighborhood children grow up while raising three of their own. Victoria is a recent graduate of Frostburg State University with a degree in art; Forrest is studying art at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond; and Garrett is a student at Capital City Public Charter School. They have all worked from time to time at Jimmy T’s and, like their parents, they love the neighborhood.