(l to r) Dr. Adena Williams Loston, president of St. Philip’s College, congratulates Tiger Café employees Mark Wyatt, Eva Ruiz, Gloria Ornelas, Lucy Rodriguez, Cafeteria Manager Jim Mastin, Irene Farias and Jeff Dixon, together with Dr. Patti Candia, vice-president of student affairs and Julius Gordon, director of student life.

The cafeteria at St. Philip’s College called “Tiger Café” has a good reason to roar. After a recent inspection by the health department, the Tiger Café received a perfect score. To celebrate the achievement, the Kitchen Cops from News 4 WOAI-TV presented the “Tiger Café” at St. Philip’s College with its Blue Plate Award. The award recognizes local restaurants that earn a perfect score on health inspection reports. “This is really great,” said Jim Mastin, food service manager of Tiger Café. “It’s really special to be recognized for food service,” he said. Mastin credits his clean kitchen to an attentive and caring staff. He says he schedules monthly meetings with his staff to discuss sanitation and other food service issues. Thousands of students, faculty and staff members at St. Philip’s eat breakfast and lunch and buy snacks at the Tiger Café every day. The Tiger Cafe features hot menu items like enchilada dinners as well as salads and sandwiches.