Jim Fifis, owner of Ponzio's, dead at 68

Demetrios Fifis, born on the Greek island of Andros in 1939, learned to cook in the Greek Merchant Marine. He came to America in 1966, an immigrant following two older brothers to southern New Jersey.

Pride aside, he started as a dishwasher in a restaurant that his brothers owned. Befitting his new life, he took a new name. Here he was called James . . . Jim . . . Jimmy Fifis.

And he thrived, working hard, saving money in this dish-rags-to-riches tale to become the owner of Ponzio's Diner in Cherry Hill, the iconic see-and-be-seen watering hole for politicians, deal-makers and just plain family folk.

Power players at one table. Wide-eyed kids eating frosted cupcakes at the next. At the counter, cheeseburgers in paradise.

"It's like Cheers for New Jersey," said former Cherry Hill mayor Susan Bass Levin, 55, who has been eating there since she was 18. "It's the place where everybody knows your name. . . . When you went in there it felt like home. He wanted everyone to feel like Ponzio's was theirs."

While the name Jimmy Fifis and the hospitality he engendered will live on, not so the man.

Mr. Fifis, 68, died Wednesday surrounded by his family at a Mount Holly hospice after battling lung cancer for four years, said his oldest son, Christopher.

"Through my father and his generation - I call them Greek pioneers - I learned to love America," said Christopher, 38.

"It's amazing. They had an immigrant mentality. They were determined to come to this country and live out the dream. In their minds they did that by working 16, 18 hours a day so they could provide their families with what they never had. And it worked it. It was a great formula."

The formula included a wife, Violetta, also Greek, whom he met here at a dance and quickly asked to marry him. Chris was born in 1968; his brothers John and Nick came later, spaced about two years apart. All three boys, who say their father taught them to be men, are in the family business.

The popular Route 70 restaurant, an offshoot of the eatery founded in Brooklawn by James Ponzio and eventually purchased along with the name by Fifis' brothers, serves 10,000 to 12,000 customers a week.

And until medical treatment forced him to pull back last May, Mr. Fifis was a ubiquitous, hands-on fixture there.

"My father was very operational. . . . He would do every task imaginable. He rolled up his sleeves the moment he walked in the door," said Chris.

Nephew John Giambanis, also in the business, said a steady stream of well-wishers had visited the diner or called to express their condolences.

The staff too was broken up, especially some of the immigrant workers who identified with Mr. Fifis' story.

Baha Alam, an immigrant from Bangladesh, said he worked at Ponzio's for 10 years, most recently as a busboy.

"When I heard the news I cried," said Alam.

And "because he came here like we did," he said, Mr. Fifis showed respect for even the lowest echelon of kitchen workers and serving staff.

"He didn't forget where he came from. He was not like a boss," Alam said. "He was a friend. If I needed help, he would give me a hand."

And he liked to sit with the regular customers, but never when it was busy.

On his last day at work, Mother's Day, he worked "like a 20-year-old," recalled Giambanis.

Mother's Day is one of the biggest restaurant days of the year. "He worked 16 hours and he was sick. But he did it with all his heart."

Jim Fifis knew every part of the Ponzio's operation.

He handled paperwork, ordering, dealing with the vendors. But he wasn't above pouring water, working the cash register, or clearing tables.

"If the kitchen was swamped, he would jump behind the line and help cooks get the orders out," Giambanis said. "There's not a job he didn't do. If the dishwasher needed help, or potatoes needed to be peeled, Jim would do it."

"He's going to be missed big-time," Giambanis said, eyes welling. "He's got big shoes to fill. Real big shoes to fill."

Chris Fifis was with his father Saturday night when it looked as if the end was near.

"He thought he was going to pass away that night," said Chris. "I had only visited for 20 minutes when he said to me, 'You better go home and get some sleep. You have a restaurant to run in the morning.' "

Friends may call from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday and after 11 a.m. Monday at St. Thomas Greek Orthodox Church, 615 Mercer St., Cherry Hill. Services will be at the church at 12:30 p.m. Monday. Interment will be in Locustwood Memorial Park in Cherry Hill.