One of the ways that senior living communities can keep residents happy is through their culinary arts programs, and the restaurant at one continuing care retirement / life plan community recently won an award for its efforts toward that end.
Tashi, the signature restaurant of The Mather in Tysons, VA, has earned an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator’s 2026 Restaurant Awards, elevating it to one of the world’s best restaurants for wine.
The Tobias family of Annandale, Virginia, wasn’t one to sit around.
With seven children, all of whom played sports, parents Joyce and Thomas Tobias kept busy, shuttling kids to soccer games and gymnastics meets, coaching wrestling and leading family bike rides. In the late 1990s, when the kids were grown, the couple biked across the country together.
“I guess you could call us athletic,” Joyce Tobias said. “Having seven children, that’s athletic itself.”
Tysons, Va., June 24, 2026 – The Mather received an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator’s 2026 Restaurant Awards, which celebrate the world’s best restaurants for wine.
The award recognizes The Mather’s signature restaurant, Tashi, for its exceptional wine program, which features a rotating cellar of more than 100 bottles from diverse regions, varietals and formats – many of which can’t be purchased from traditional retailers. Unique in the senior living space, The Mather’s wine program is managed by a sommelier and curated to complement Tashi’s fresh culinary themes each month, encouraging residents to continuously explore new flavors.
Since the idea of “active aging” took shape in the early 2000s, the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA) has been an association focused on helping develop wellness environments and services for adults over 50 through well-defined standards and benchmarks.
The ICAA defines the principle of active aging as “the conviction that people can significantly improve the quality of their later years by staying active and fully engaged in life,” according to its website.
The Mather, a continuing care retirement / life plan community in northern Virginia, has been awarded the first-ever Platinum Plate of Distinction in North America from the International Council on Active Aging. The distinction recognizes the community’s excellence in culinary, nutrition, hospitality and innovation in senior living.
“Every day, our food and beverage team goes above and beyond to create culinary experiences that transcend the ordinary,” Mather CEO and President Mary Leary told the McKnight’s Business Daily. “Residents are discerning diners and world travelers, and our team embraces this, celebrating the culture and cuisine that reflects The Mather’s Washington, DC, surroundings.”
The 2026 Northern Virginia Senior Olympics are scheduled for Sept. 9 through Oct. 4 with an official opening on Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center in Arlington.
Michael Coleman of Falls Church, newly elected chair of the event, is predicting another record year for participation.
The traditional image of a senior community includes “Acres” or “Glen” in the name and a huge, grassy campus with rolling hills. But that may be changing, if recent developments in the DC area are any indication.
The Grandview development in North Bethesda, Maryland, run by Erickson, and The Mather, a community “for those 62 and better” run by the company Mather, in Tysons are examples of high-rise retirement communities set in more urban areas.
The Grandview from Erickson Senior Living is under construction, though it still requires approval of the Maryland Department of Aging.
When you think of the region’s largest senior living complexes, you probably picture sprawling gated communities like Greenspring in Springfield or Leisure World in Silver Spring. They are practically their own ZIP codes.
Senior living communities are always looking for ways to improve the well-being of their residents and staff—and biophilic design is one approach to do just that. But what exactly is biophilic design?
“The word biophilia literally means ‘love of life,’ and it refers to all the ways that humans respond to the natural world,” said Mary Leary, CEO and president of Mather. “We’re calmed by the sounds of birds singing and [the] wind in the trees, we’re cheered by the colors and patterns of a garden [and] we feel safe when we have shelter with a view of our surroundings.”
The Mather is now as tall as it’s ever going to get.
The apartment high-rise buildings for adults 62 and older “topped off” earlier this month, less than a year after beginning vertical construction.
