BEST
Bartender

CARLOS TOVAR

Carlos Tovar, the lead bartender of Aqui Mexican Grill, comes to work for 40 hours, four days a week with a smile. Tovar, 25, loves his job training other bartenders, ordering liquor, assembling costs analysis reports and chatting with regular customers who know him as "Carlos Sancho" or "Carlitos."

His flexible schedule allows him to attend school full-time at San Jose State University where he's a senior earning his bachelor's degree in mathematics. He's also the proud father of a baby girl. Tovar is the kind of person who treats customers the way he'd like to be treated, and has been at Aqui for seven years.

Tovar also knows his liquors, recently perfecting and adding four new drinks to the menu. One is even in his name—the "Carlitos" includes Hornitos tequila, Gran Marnier and freshly squeezed lime juice.

BEST
Letter Carrier
(tie)

DEBBIE MADSEN

ARCHIMEDES RAMOS

It's a tie for the honor of Best Letter Carrier from the Willow Glen post office. The community voted for both Debbie Madsen and Archimedes Ramos.

For the second year in a row, Madsen was voted best carrier. She walks about 12 miles a day on her route to 350 homes along Lincoln Avenue between Pine Avenue and Malone Road. She's been a letter carrier on the same route for almost 20 years.

Madsen grew up in the neighborhood and loves being outside, so the job is a good match with her personality. She's busy at the moment with sorting political mail and tons of catalogs, but does it with a positive attitude.

Ramos has been working for the postal service almost 18 years and said he enjoys the exercise and job security. He said it can be pretty stressful getting out people's mail on time. His route runs in between Minnesota Avenue and Willow Street for about 10 miles. His job also includes being friendly with his customers, without stopping for too long to chat.

"My customers are just like my family now," he said. "I've been doing that route for 16 years this coming November."

BEST
Waitress

CINDE DAVIS

For the third year in a row, Cinde Davis, a 26-year veteran of the restaurant business, takes home the title of Best Waitress. As an employee at Siena, A Mediterranean Bistro, Davis said she likes the people she works with as well as the customers, 75 percent of whom are regulars.

"I wait on my neighbors because I live here, too," she says.

The convenience of being close to home and serving in a small but quaint Mediterranean- and Italian-influenced environment is appealing, she says. Davis, who often wears a long, blonde braid, has lived in the Willow Glen area for 22 years.

"I'm a restaurant junkie," she says. "It's different every day, but some things are the same every day."

Davis also says she enjoys being on her feet while working and knows the menu by heart, so she's great when it comes to recommending entrees.

BEST
Member of the Clergy
(tie)

MONSIGNOR JAMES WALSH

THE REV. CHRIS CREED

For the second year in a row Monsignor James Walsh received the most votes for best member of the clergy in Willow Glen. "Father Jim," as he calls himself, has been the pastor at St. Christopher Church for the last 15 years.

The 60-year-old became interested in the priesthood as a boy in Ireland because the priests he knew "were happy, content and weren't complaining," he says. "I was also naïve and young and wanted to convert the world." Walsh originally planned to go to Africa with St. Patrick's Missionary Society, but his uncle who was a priest invited him to come to San Francisco. Walsh says before San Francisco's Archbishop John Joseph Mitty's death in 1961, the Irish were not "were not too welcome as priests." But Walsh was one of the first Irish priests to return to San Francisco, he says.

He was assigned to St. Christopher as associate pastor in the early 1970s and became pastor in 1989. "Wherever you go, you fall in love with that place," Walsh says. "It's where you warm up to and make your life." Walsh says he has enjoyed the interaction with his parishioners, who form a "wonderful, big, supportive community." The members number 4,000 families. "People in this parish feel very attached to it, and it makes a big difference," he says.

This year the Rev. Chris Creed of St. Francis Episcopal Church made his debut as Best Member of Willow Glen Clergy.

The 61-year-old has been the rector at St. Francis in Willow Glen for four years.

A look at Creed's résumé shows a variety of careers, including the Air Force, commercial banking and law. But less than satisfied with his secular profession, he chose to study divinity at age 50 and says many other Episcopal seminarians are also second-career priests.

Creed, or "Father Chris" as he likes to be called, says his varied jobs and serving as a chaplain at Stanford University Hospital and at Seabreeze Preschool in Foster City gave him rich experience for ministering in his congregation.

He says working with young children at the preschool was a great delight. "By the end of the year, the little munchkins were still facing forward and know some of the prayers," he says.

Creed says it's through pastoral care he's found fulfillment in connecting with people. "It's journeying with folks in different circumstances and pointing people to spiritual things," he says.

Creed says he wants to be useful, inclusive and welcoming to parishioners.

BEST
Dentist

MICHAEL FORSTER

The days of the family dentist are still with us, although they are few and far between. Dr. Michael Forster's dental practice is a 55-year-old family tradition. He joined his father for 10 years and then took over after his father retired in 1987. The sense of continuity and the fact that Forster knows three generations of some families contributes to the personal, familiar relationship he has with patients.

Forster worked in a dental lab on Lincoln Avenue when he was 18, making crowns and bridges, and says it was being exposed to more dentists than just his father that made him choose the profession.

Forster keeps it plain and simple with general dentistry and does not do cosmetic or restorative work. "I'm most geared for taking care of people," he says.

The best dentists are the ones who treat patients like they'd want to be treated, Forster says. He also makes a point of seeing people on time and getting them in quickly for emergency visits.

It's appropriate that Forster has a business in Willow Glen, because he's a Willow Glen native.

BEST
Community Volunteer

LARRY AMES

This is the second consecutive year that Larry Ames has won Best Community Volunteer. The 25-year resident, who's known for being the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association technical wizard and being a proponent of creek trails, likes to connect residents either through email lists or pathways to create a more open community.

A past president, vice president and treasurer of the neighborhood association, Ames is still a member of the board of directors, but has delegated his longtime responsibilities of the website and elist signups to other members. He still writes the newsletter and moderates the online neighborhood forum.

Ames spoke up for creek trails recently by sending a letter to the city about the Del Monte/KB Homes Development. He wants to ensure usable, walkable trails are created at the site.

In November, he finishes his last term as a county park commissioner, which he's been for 10 years.

"We've been pushing for swimming in a natural environment," he says. Ames says the county is considering creating a "swimming hole" in San Jose, probably near Coyote Creek.

Ames was also the guinea pig for fellow board member Joan Bohnett, who is heading up an oral histories project with longtime residents in Willow Glen.