“It’s like seeing a long-lost family member,” said David Evans, manager of the Bobcat Den, as he looked around the newly reopened campus pub on Tuesday morning.

The gradual return to in-person �ֲ���ý life has a lot of signposts. Some are big as billboards, like last spring’s return to an in-person Commencement. And some, like the Den’s return after being closed for 516 days, might whiz by without fanfare — but feel deeply symbolic.

Shortly after Evans unlocked the door at 8 a.m., his first customer was a Den regular, 97-year-old Ralph Sylvester ‘50, who drove himself from his home in Auburn.

“I turned in my Subaru for a Ford Escape,” he reports. And his first vehicle? “A 1938 four-door Ford sedan. I bought it after the war from Cloutier’s Garage on Canal Street for $365. That was a beater.”

The Den staff warmly greeted Sylvester as he ambled in. Indeed, the Den is one of those “everyone knows your name” places. And where most folks are old enough to get that reference.

“You can see a lot of people come through the Den who you may not see on a regular basis on campus,” says Alan Kelley of �ֲ���ý Facility Services. “It’s great to see folks and say, ‘Hi, how’s it going,’ and get a decent meal to fill your belly to start your day out right.”

The Den was created as part of a 1950 expansion of Chase Hall. It promised to be, and became, a place where “men and women could get together informally anytime during the day or evening, for a coke or a snack, or just to talk, listen to records and even trip a light fantastic or two,” reported The �ֲ���ý Student.

Then as now, coffee was a big seller. “Coffee sales have necessitated an order for four dozen additional cups,” the Student reported.

At breakfast and lunch, Den customers today are mostly faculty and staff, plus occasional visitors, perhaps a worker from a �ֲ���ý construction site or from a nearby hospital.

Some sit alone reading the paper or scrolling through their news feed. Others are at tables pushed together for a departmental meal. In the corner seats, a professor and senior might be going over a thesis proposal. 

Between meals and in the evening, it’s more of a quiet hangout spot for students.

Sylvester is a World War II veteran, a combat engineer who arrived on Omaha Beach about a week after D-Day, then spent the rest of the war clearing minefields and building bridges for troops heading inexorably toward Germany. 

For his first breakfast back in Den, Sylvester had two eggs over easy, with bacon, toast, and home fries.

Kelley soon joined Sylvester at their regular table, close to the entrance, for a renewal of their years-long routine, having breakfast together, sometimes joined by John Rasmussen, energy manager for Facility Services.

“The Den is where Ralph and I met and developed our friendship,” said Kelley, who is the mechanical and electrical services manager for Facility Services. 

“And it’s quite a friendship,” said Sylvester, dipping a forkful of home fries into his ketchup.

Wednesday evening, as the first week of classes awakened campus from its winter slumber, Kurt Niiler ’18 of Freedom, N.H., and his Bobcat Den Delivery staff already had their work cut out for them. As soon as their student-developed app was turned on, the orders “started popping,” says Niiler. “Eleven in the first 10 minutes!”

Hadley Moreau '19 of Falmouth, Maine cycles across campus on a Den Delivery run.

Hadley Moreau '19 of Falmouth, Maine delivers a meal to Rafi Wolfson '19 of Riverside, R.I.

Thorn Merrill '18 of Morrisville, Vt., displays the Den Delivery trucker hat as orders come in.

Thorn Merrill '18 of Morrisville, Vt., packs up several orders for delivery.

Kurt Niiler '18 of Freedom, N.H., Thorn Merrill '18 of Morrisville, Vt., and Hadley Moreau '19 of Falmouth, Maine await incoming orders.

The new app, developed by last year’s staff, makes ordering ­— and fulfillment — a breeze. Customers enter their order and location, the information populates a spreadsheet that the team views on laptops at the Den, and Den staffers fill the orders.

Then, the Bobcat Den Delivery team groups the orders  in backpacks and delivers them across campus via bicycle.

The delivery staff, which on Wednesday comprised Niiler, Thorn Merrill ’19 of Morrisville, Vt., and Hadley Moreau ’19 of Falmouth, Maine, gains an intricate knowledge of �ֲ���ý geography.

As Merrill explains, “It forces you to really know the �ֲ���ý campus” — for example, “things like what rooms are mountain side and street side” at the 280 College Street residence “and where all the different Wood Street houses are.”

There is no typical Den Delivery customer. Some were studying, some were with a group of friends, and still others were alone in pajamas, watching Netflix. All of them were hungry.

“Each shift, you experience this mosaic of �ֲ���ý campus life,” Niiler says. “I think it’s a pretty unique experience to have, and it’s cool to get to know some of these people you might not have crossed paths with otherwise.”

The service is available from 9 p.m. until midnight, Sunday through Thursday.

One evening, over wine and hors d’oeuvres in the Bobcat Den, two themes prominent on campus enjoyed an intimate encounter.

“…I take spice bottles down from the cabinet one at a time… / and fill my head with their fragrances, as I would with sad airs / for strings.…”

A splendid Dining Services buffet — featuring Swedish meatballs, phyllo filled with cheese and vegetables, pesto and sundried tomato pizza, and mini-whoopie pies — set a fitting context for poems read by Jane Costlow, professor of Russian.

She focused on other essential questions about food: What to do when there isn’t enough? And what, when there is enough?

First she read from “Hunger,” Velimir Khlebnikov’s long lament about a Russian famine in 1920–21: “‘The acorns are gone! The people have eaten my acorns!’ / The scampering squirrel chatters angrily.”

Next came Nikolay Zabolotsky’s “Dinner,” whose conclusion, as we sat there feeling satisfied with life, was worth remembering:

“[I]f only we could see in shining rays / the blissful childhood of the plants / surely we should descend upon our knees / before the bubbling pan of vegetables.”

Numbering about 470, the entering class of 2001 features students from 35 states and 14 countries. Scholastically, 36 percent of the class ranked within the top five percent of their high school graduating class, the highest percentage since institutional data became available in 1981. Fifty-six percent of the first-year students are from New England, consistent with recent years, while applications from Maine students showed a 10-percent increase. Multicultural students make up nine percent of the class and more than half of the Class of ’01 is receiving some form of financial aid.

Owned by the college since 1939, 32 Frye St. is being converted into a student-operated coffeehouse for members of the �ֲ���ý community and their guests. The 4,000 square foot building is the site where local construction workers recently discovered civil war-era correspondence between �ֲ���ý professor Uriah Balkam and his wife, Annie. Upon completion this fall, the capacity of the two-story house will be in excess of 250 people. The coffeehouse will provide additional social options to students in a non alcoholic setting.

Renovation work is being done by Ouellet Construction of Brunswick in conjunction with �ֲ���ý College Facility Services crews. Until the recent renovations, the �ֲ���ý-owned house was used as a dual-family dwelling. The house will be wheelchair-accessible on the first level, where some of the walls have been removed to create an open, airy ambiance. A room for smoking patrons will also be available.

The student-run operation will feature student programming and a menu offering a variety of coffees and pastries. “We’re really excited about the possibilities for this informal space within our community and look forward to an additional, relaxed setting where students, faculty and staff can gather,” said Peter Taylor, assistant dean of students at �ֲ���ý.

The coffeehouse is expected to open sometime at the start of the 1997-98 academic year. Second-floor renovations are incomplete, but at some later date, upstairs meeting rooms will be used by student groups and organizations. The house has been connected on both floors to the garage, formerly a barn, which will be used as a performance area on the first floor, and a gallery upstairs.

Renovations at the Den in Chase Hall include new music equipment and a big screen TV in addition to enhanced food production including a conveyor oven for hot sandwiches, nachos, buffalo wings and small pizzas as well as the establishment of a pub with limited hours when beer will be served to those 21 and over. Proper identification will be required at the door, where bracelets will be distributed differentiating between those 21 years of age and older and minors. Wait staff will take orders at the tables, checking bracelet identifications and ensuring that minors are not served.

Pub clientele will be limited to members of the �ֲ���ý community and their guests. Initially, the pub will operate on Fridays and Saturdays between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. with beer service ending at 1 a.m. Managed by dining services at �ֲ���ý, “the pub’s operation will be in strict compliance with Maine liquor laws,” Taylor said. The Den will continue to operate as a snack bar during the day, serving breakfast and lunch.

More than 50 local businesses have been invited to participate in the annual Merchants Fair Sept. 4 in the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building for a day-long display of merchandise and services available to �ֲ���ý students.