Service with a Smile

Danyelle Pitts has 15,004 children.

That's four kids of her own and 15,000 UB undergraduates, who after three years working at UB, are like children of her own, she said.

Pitts serves students salads and smiles five days a week at Bert's restaurant in Talbert Hall.

"A lot of the students I call my kids. That's my daughter," she said, standing behind the shiny silver countertop at Bert's, pointing to a girl with a backpack in line at Bertito's taco stand.

"That's my son," she said pointing to another student. "I've adopted them."

Built like a modern-day Aunt Jemima, Pitts, with her bleached blond hair twisted back into neat cornrows and Indian-style jewel in the middle of her forehead, prefers to be called "Big Mama."

The 40-year-old single mother used to work a second job at a daycare to help support her four children, who range in age from 8 to 25, and her three grandchildren.

"I'm gonna take care of my kids," she said as she pulled out a butcher knife and a plastic bin full of onions to slice. "Ain't nobody gonna help me with my kids but me."

She said there was a time when she would end her shift at Bert's and drive to the daycare for another eight-hour shift.

Currently, she works only one job and says she enjoys working at UB more than any other job she has ever taken.

"You know what else I like?" she asked while chopping onions. "Being smiley all the time, 'cause it make a lot of people days."

Aside from making custom salads, she said she's there to add cheer to the restaurant.

"I speak to everybody in line. I don't care if it's a thousand people," she said. "I speak to every one."

She said when she sees a student who is not in a good mood, she just smiles, says hello and strikes up a conversation.

"I change they whole attitude," she said.

Pitts is the life of the party for her co-workers, as well. Recently voted Bert's committee member to keep up employee spirit, Pitts has given every member of the staff a nickname and has made oversized buttons for them to wear.

She said she is like family with her co-workers "Allie-poo," "Meekah," "Lady Diana" and "Big Sis."

"Mac Daddy is the cook in the back," she said. "He already had that name, though," she said, raising her brows and nodding.

She said another co-worker earned her nickname after coming into work with an attitude one too many times.

"I said, 'Don't be getting so sassy,'" Pitts said, with a look that could stop an elephant in its tracks. "So I started calling her 'So Sassy,'" she said with a smile.

Pitts, a "kitchen beautician" and former dancer, used to be a regular on the Buffalo television show "City Rhythm" and said she loved the spotlight even in her youth.

She said she runs into friends from years ago every so often, who ask her if she's still a dancer.

"They be asking me, 'Girl, you still dancing?'"

"My d--- knees hurt," she answers herself, chuckling. "I've gotta lose some weight."

Her knees don't bother her when she's dancing in Bert's every morning, she said.

As a test, Pitts screamed the lyrics to the popular Baha Men song "Who Let the Dogs Out?" into the air and a co-worker's answer "Who? Who? Who?" resonated from behind a shiny, silver refrigerator door.

Pitts snickered at the response.

"He's real, real quiet," she said. "I done brought something out of him. Now, he do a little dance for me in the morning."

Pitts said that the "Big Mama" persona just brings the best out in people, and she looks for new ways to bring cheer to the restaurant.

Pitts was looking to stir up trouble before the Superbowl as she bellowed across the crowded restaurant, "Excuse me, is there any Raider fans in here?"

She said she was met with a mix of laughter, boos and cheers.

"I have so much fun with my kids," she said.

Pitts said if there's anything she has learned during her time serving the students of UB, it has been to carry that lighthearted attitude through the day.

She said despite long lines and often sour-faced customers, it's never the students who get to her; it's the onions.

"I be crying for you guys," she said as she finished chopping the last of the onions. "Tears be everywhere."