Almost 150 eager students stand in a line that leads down a flight of stairs to the basement of Cabot Hall. The hallway smells of warm laundry, but no one seems to mind--they're all content to wait patiently beneath the pipes until 10 p.m., the hour that Cookin' at the Grill finally opens its doors.

The line of customers makes its way from the brightly-lit basement into the swanky nightclub, with its soft red and blue lighting--it's still pretty warm inside, but at least the laundry smell is gone. A maitred' greets each party.

"How many?" inquires this fuxedo-clad host before ushering a up to one of the club's intimate, candlelit round tables. These tables are in a semicircle around a black and white checkered stage and dance floor.

A very few minutes after the doors are opened, most of the guests expected at Cookin' fill the tables of the one-year-old nightclub.

From 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. very Friday night, Cookin' provides its guests with hors d'oeuvres, drinks, and live entertainment for $3.99. That might explain the crowds, but the question still remains: what is a nightclub doing in the Cabot House basement?

Nester Figueroa '86, president of Cookin', explains: "I was down at the grill one night last spring working on a problem set for Ec and I thought, 'It'd be great to have a jazz nightclub here.'" Within eight days, Figueroa had a small, primarily jazz nightclub set up at the Cabot grill, in the basement of Briggs and Barnard halls.

Cookin' has come a long way since then. It moved to a more spacious basement room at the beginning of the school year, and now about half of its guests come from Houses other than Cabot. Jazz groups still appear, but so do rock bands, bluegrass bands, DI's, and other student performers. "I feel there's a lot of talent here on campus, and I wanted to provide a place to bring that out," Figueroa says.

One key to Cookin's increasing success as a Friday night hangout is service, says Figueroa. "People really experience being served, and that service comes out in the relationship among the staff," he says.

The club's emphasis on quick service is apparent from the minute patrons begin to enter. Right after they are seated, student waitresses in black dresses and waiters in fuxedos begin delivering bowls of cheese flavored popcorn and drinks to the tables.

From that point on, the popcorn bowls and cups are rarely empty for more than five minutes. For some, however, the novelty of being served by their peers is too great an opportunity to pass up, and every once in a while a call for "Popcorn!" interrupts the act in progress.

Employees

Although volunteer waiters and waitresses come from all different Houses, the official Cookin' staff of 14 consists primarily of Cabot House residents along with two freshmen, Figueroa says. "We're trying to get the whole House involved in the Cookin' production," says Raphael W. Bostic 87, a Cookin' staff member. "We give them a good time and party with them afterward."

Although many people praise the nightclub for the quality and diversity of its entertainment, there's more than one reason for choosing Cookin' as a Friday night hangout. Some patrons come simply for convenience's sake: "I had to hand in a chapter to my thesis adviser at North House," said Quincy House resident Julia R. Gordon '85. "That's why I'm here."

"It's better than going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show for the hundredth time," said Eric A. Koide '87, a Mather House resident and first-time visitor at Cookin'.

At $3.99 per person, Figueroa estimates that Cookin' is "a very cheap date." He says, "If I were a guy taking a girl out, I wouldn't mind it at all."

Not everyone is content with the cover charge, however. "It's upsetting that it went up to $3.99," said Cabot House resident and frequent Cookin'-goer Sharon Kantrowitz '85. "You go a friendlier feeling when it cost less money."

Price Increases

When Cookin' opened in September, the cover charge was $1.99, but the nightclub was losing money, says Figueroa. The price went up to $2.99 in January and increased to $3.99 several weeks ago. Figueroa adds that he does not now forsee any further increase in the cover charge.

Figueroa invested $1400 of his own money to open Cookin', and although the Undergraduate Council promised funding in the fall, the nightclub has yet to see any of it.

Every night Figueroa circulates a book from table to table for people to sign and make comments in. "It gives us a sense of people's opinions," he says. Comments in the book range from "We should have something like this down at the river" to "We should have something like this down at the river" to "We should have something like this at Yale."

Cabot House resident Dennis P. Lewis '87, explains the mystique of Cookin': "It's a non-tension place. No one comes in worrying about whether he'll get carded or whether he'll fit in. It's that freestyle living that every one wants." Smiling and clutching his heart, Lewis adds, "It gets me right here."