It’s 9:50 p.m. and a long line of students is steadily accumulating in the basement of Timothy Dwight College (TD).
They’re here for the spring semester opening night of the TD buttery — affectionately referred to as the “TD Butt” — and the buttery staff are busy preparing the kitchen, heating up the frying oil, and donning their aprons. At 10 p.m., the shutter rolls up, and the orders begin to stream in.
All 14 of Yale’s residential colleges have their own butteries — late-night snack bars staffed and managed entirely by undergraduates to help college residents sate after-hours appetites.
Each one has a unique menu of late-night treats and snacks, offered at an affordable price subsidized by the college. (The origins of the name “buttery” reach back to the Middle Ages, when it referred to storerooms for food and drink.) Which buttery is the best is a contentious topic, of course — most Yalies will probably nominate their college’s own.
Getting ready for opening night at the Timothy Dwight buttery (known as the TD Butt).
Kitchen confidential
This night, the TD Butt is serving a wide-ranging menu that includes quesadillas and egg sandwiches, donut holes and mochi.
Amy Lee and Helena Vargas, both juniors and the TD Butt’s managers — or “Buttheads” — are busy taking orders at the register.
“Someone needs to be at the front, doing the register and taking down orders with the pen and the pad and then calling them out,” Vargas explained. Behind the scenes, three students prepare the food. The students begin their first semester at the TD Butt as volunteers, after which they become paid staff. “One person works the fryer — the only working one left at Yale, apparently,” Vargas said.
“And then we have the grill position, which makes all the sandwiches, quesadillas, everything.”
A breakfast burrito being prepared on the TD Butt’s grill; the buttery also features one of the few operational fryers among the college butteries.
The TD Butt puts on special themed nights once a month. “We did a pancake night earlier this year, which was really fun,” said Vargas. “We were making big stacks of pancakes with mix-ins, like blueberries, strawberries, banana, chocolate chips.”
“I think I made 500 pancakes that night,” Lee added.
Lee joined the buttery her sophomore year to become closer to her residential college community.
“I’ve met a lot of people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise by working in the buttery,” said Lee.
Vargas joined the buttery her first semester. “It was my favorite part of TD,” she said. “I just loved everyone who worked there — I love how we’re always playing music, dancing.”
“Take a Chance on Me” by ABBA begins to play from a speaker in the kitchen: If you change your mind, I’m the first in line.
“I made a buttery playlist,” said Lee. “Usually, I just play what I’m listening to and everyone really seems to enjoy it.” She laughed. “I guess that’s convenient for me.”
A well-stocked freezer is key to many of the TD Butt’s menu offerings.
A space for all
The buttery is more than just a place to grab a caffeinated burst of energy or a quick bite to eat. For the hundreds of undergraduates who live in their residential colleges, the buttery is a place to reconnect and make new friendships; students who choose to live off-campus after their sophomore year also return to catch up over the buttery’s offerings.
The TD Butt, its walls lined with signed TD sports jerseys and other college paraphernalia, features a ping-pong table, an air-hockey table, and a sizable stack of board games. Students come here to catch up with old friends, work on projects together, play pool, and make the most out of living in one of Yale’s tight-knit residential colleges.
Tonight, at the back of the buttery, a poker game is in full swing, while in the diner-style booths, students are hard at work collaborating on problem sets and discussing essays. Tucked away in the corner, meanwhile, is a cosy study nook, where Yalies are nestled together on the couches in studious silence.
“It’s just such a nice place to be with my friends and just hang out,” said Lee.
As the buttery staff work their way through the orders, calling out names over the chatter, students weave across the checkered flooring, balancing sandwiches on paper plates.
“I think the reason we’re so great is because of our tradition,” Vargas said. “We pass along recipes from buttery manager to buttery manager.”
One of last year’s buttery managers, Jack Denning ’24 (a “celebrity” around TD, according to Lee), is the inventor of one popular item on the menu — humbly named the Jack Denning. “It’s a grilled cheese with dino nuggets and a fried egg,” explained Vargas, adding that the sandwich is her favorite item on the menu.
This year, Vargas and Lee have contributed their own unique creation to the menu. “It’s the Hamy: Helena, Amy,” Vargas said. “It’s frozen strawberries with Nutella.”
Buttery managers Helena Vargas ’26 and Amy Lee ’26 admire their latest creation.
“We released it today,” added Lee, explaining that they had refined the recipe through several prototypes.
In addition to passing down their recipes, the TD Butt staff has another proud tradition.
Each year, the buttery managers sign a 111-ounce can of Bush’s pinto beans, which they refer to as the “archival beans.” Vargas used both hands to hold up the can and turned it to display signatures of varying sizes. “Buttheads” usually serve as managers their junior year, but sometimes stay for longer. “I want to say there’s over ten buttery managers on there,” said Vargas.
By 10:30 p.m., the line that began before the buttery opened is almost gone. The TD Butt will stay open until 1 a.m., serving late-night study fuel and snacks for friends catching up over the buttery’s high-top bar.
“It’s just a great community space for TDs,” said Lee. “Everyone comes together into one community at the buttery.”
What’s in a name?
While many of the college butteries, like the TD Butt, simply use a variation of the college name and the word “buttery” — or have no name at all — others take a more creative approach:
• Grace Hopper College is home to The Trolley Stop, named for the college’s location on the corner of Elm and College streets, where New Haven’s former streetcars would screech as they made the turn.
• The Moose Butt can be found in Ezra Stiles College, named after a taxidermy moose presented to the college in 1972, which now hangs in its dining hall.
• The Morsel, in Morse College, serves the college’s residents — also known as “Morsels.”
