I have an alter ego. Just like Clark Kent and Superman, or Bruce Wayne (and now apparently Ben Affleck) and Batman, once a week I morph into a nigh-unrecognizable entity. By day, I’m a Yale sophomore, struggling through Intermediate Microeconomics. But come Thursday night, I become a Yale’s equivalent to an Iron Chef: a Buttery Worker.
The Timothy Dwight College Buttery is a restaurant in TD’s basement, with the odd operating hours of 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., Sunday through Thursday. We serve everything from quesadillas to egg sandwiches, hot pockets to ramen, seltzer to mochi (a delicious Japanese rice treat). We’re famed for our deep fryer, which we use to make waffle fries, popcorn chicken and mozzarella sticks. We have a “fry anything” night in the works, where students can bring in various food items to be deep-fried in buttery-made batter.
Working in the Buttery is one of the best jobs on campus. I always describe it as making food for your best friends while working for a “restaurant” that isn’t concerned about profit.
It’s always all smiles down in the TD Buttery…
TD Butt employees are like a family. We’re led by a “Buttmaster,” who ensures that we remain stocked and ready to go each night. We frequently hang out outside of work, like at last weekend’s “Pacific Rim” viewing party. We have a “TD Buttery Employee of the Week.” Yours truly happens to be the current winner. Past winners have included the TD Operations Manager (a Buttery Worker himself when he was a student) and our ever-supportive college master, Jeff Brenzel.
The Buttery is more than just a late-night restaurant; it’s a social space. Students come down to study or just hang out, enticed by our big screen TV, plentiful seating, free popcorn, and my excellent taste in music. To quote an email from Master (and former Buttmaster) Brenzel, “food = love, and that’s all you have to know.”
There’s a whole bunch of love down in the TD Buttery, some of it deep fried.
