I’m bumping this thread to note that today’s New York Times has an article Ode to the Buttered Roll, That New York Lifeline, that confirms what this thread was saying, that the buttered roll, ubiquitous in New York and its suburbs, is a regional thing – and wonderful in it its own unfussy way.
Never heard of a buttered roll as you described.
I’ve lived in NJ,DE,FL,TX,WA,IA.
Buttermilk biscuit > buttered roll
I’m in PA. I’ve had kaiser rolls with butter on them but never for breakfast or with coffee. Strangely enough, I had heard about that being a New York thing at some time. I never considered it a thing when I do it, it’s just been something I’ve done 
.
How. . . how can you even think this? You. . .You’re a. . .a. . . a . . . MONSTRO!
I lived in NYC for a year and never encountered the buttered roll. From what the article says they’ve been around forever, but I never noticed them on the breakfast carts, I would always just get a bagel (bagel and coffee $1 back in the mid 90s). It’s interesting the completely random stuff you miss stumbling across.
Unfussy, you say? At this moment some millennial entrepreneur is planning his new West Village restaurant "The Buttered Roll, which will serve nothing but artisanally-baked bulkie rolls made of hard winter organic wheat flour, spread with locally-sourced full-fat butter produced by pedigreed Jersey cows who receive daily hot-stone Swedish massage.
He’s got his eye on a choice property on Bleecker Street, near the macaroni-and-cheese-only bistro and the PBJ place.
Wonkette has a bit of fun with the New York Times; buttered rolls:
When I was doing blue collar work in NYC in the '80’s a buttered roll and a light no sugar was my regular breakfast- those rolls are pretty decadent, luckily I had a job that burned calories.
nm. I like buttered rolls made by zombies.
I’ve heard of them (and I’m pretty sure I’ve had one), but I know them only as a New York (or New York area) thing.
And in Georgia, if you ask for something in the typical “New York style” you describe, you are likely to get a roll with some liquid other than butter on it.
A couple of local teenagers are now in jail for making the morning biscuits more deliciously golden yellow with certain erm… easily obtained bodily fluids. In their defense, there WAS a water shortage at the time.
Leave the attitudes in New York. Thank you.
I’ll be sure to warn her about all you Georgia tough guys who secretly piss in food to show how tough they are.
And now a follow-up from the writer, on the flaming and criticism the article received. (“How dare I claim the buttered roll for New York, like some sort of cosmopolitan conquistador? I was called an elitist, a bubble-dweller who (apparently) spent my days snickering at rubes in flyover country.”)
And Ms. Stein’s response seems to miss the point of the criticism. It’s not about whether most New Yorker’s like them, it’s about the notion that New York (or any other locale, large or small) has sole ownership of an ordinary food.
The responses in this thread tend to confirm the idea that the classic New York area buttered roll is in fact a pretty regional thing.
A rowie is an Aberdonian staple.
As far as I can see, that’s nothing like a NY buttered roll.
No, but it sure looks tasty.
It fits the description in the OP. And yes, it’s tasty.