On their Instagram page, The 

Side Door pop-up restaurant boasts 

impeccable 
service, 
an 
intimate 

ambiance and gourmet cooking. It 

might sound like any other high-end 

eatery in downtown Ann Arbor, but 

there’s one caveat. The business is 

run by three U-M students out of an 

unfinished basement.

Public policy senior Chris Wong, 

Business and Public Policy junior 

Daniel Zhang and Engineering junior 

Vineet Dongre are the founders of The 

Side Door. It’s, quite literally, a hole-in-

the-wall establishment, named after 

the entranceway, which is located 

on the side of an unassuming off-

campus house located in Ann Arbor’s 

Germantown neighborhood. The chefs 

— one of whom lives at the house — 

asked The Michigan Daily to not share 

the restaurant’s address to protect the 

owners’ privacy.

Since the business was founded at 

the beginning of the semester, The Side 

Door has served about 200 dishes to 

50 students over five evenings spread 

out throughout the fall semester. Every 

meal, or “cook,” has its own theme, 

which have ranged from “vegetarian 

fusion” to a variety of global cuisines.

With just eight available seats every 

night, hundreds of students compete for 

the limited number of spots. The Side 

Door posts an RSVP on its Instagram 

account a couple of days before the 

dinners. The chefs told The Michigan 

Daily the RSVP fills up within minutes.

It’s not hard to see why. From Brûlé 

beet carpaccio with assorted greens 

to whipped goat cheese, hot honey 

and sauce vierge, Wong, Zhang and 

Dongre said they try to think outside 

of their box with their menus. Wong 

said the restaurant has three main 

goals: to create original dishes, provide 

customers with a top-notch, brand-

new experience and to cultivate a 

community over shared meals.

“Something that we’re proudest of 

as a group, apart from the food that we 

make, is that we’re really into giving a 

good experience,” Wong said. “If you 

sign up for The Side Door, you’re signing 

up … without knowing who’s going to 

show up, and you basically come to this 

house, go into the basement, and you’re 

meeting new people, and starting new 

friendships.” 

The self-taught chefs said they were 

inspired by their shared South and East 

Asian heritage for their first “cook.” 

Even though they have continued to 

include Chinese, Korean and Indian 

elements in their dishes, they have also 

branched out, sourcing ingredients and 

recipes from every corner of the world.

LSA junior Chava Makman attended 

The Side Door’s Thanksgiving meal 

on Nov. 17, which featured a Filipino-

inspired Kamayan feast. She said the 

experience was unlike any she had ever 

had before. Makman added that the 

presentation and hospitality skills were 

far beyond what one might expect in a 

student basement.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had any 

Filipino food, let alone a Filipino-

inspired, 
Thanksgiving-inspired 

combination meal,” Makman said. “So 

every dish I tried was brand new, and 

there were maybe five, six or seven 

dishes. Although they were our age, 

(the chefs) acted really professional. 

They provided an experience as if we 

were at a five star restaurant downtown 

in a city. It was superb.” 

Wong, Zhang and Dongre said they 

hope The Side Door will continue to 

bring people together across campus 

who 
might 
not 
otherwise 
find 

themselves in the same room, no less 

around the same dinner table. 

“Our third goal was to bring 

together people who would never, ever 

meet at this super big campus,” Dongre 

said. “In what other situation would 

you have a relatively intimate dinner 

with seven other people that you may 

not know? We want people to come to 

this thing and meet other people on 

campus.” 

Engineering 
freshman 
Mena 

Nasiri said she signed up for The Side 

Door’s fourth cook after her sister, a 

junior, showed her their Instagram 

page. According to Wong, word-of-

mouth and social media are how most 

people learn about The Side Door, with 

their Instagram followers more than 

quadrupling in the months since their 

first Cook.

When she heard about it, Nasiri said 

attending a cook seemed like a good 

way to meet people outside of the other 

freshmen who live in her residence hall. 

“I came in a little nervous, because 

I have social anxiety, and (for) the first 

ten minutes I was kind of worried,” 

Nasiri said. “Most people came with 

people they know, but as the night went 

on, I really clicked with the group that 

was next to me. I found myself talking 

to most of the people by the end of the 

night, and that was really cool.” 

Wong said that’s what happens 

every time. 

“When we come down at the end, 

once all the food has been served, 

we see people who have never met 

hugging, exchanging numbers and 

forging new friendships, and that’s 

beautiful,” Wong said. “We wanted to 

do something really unique, and I think 

we’ve done it.” 

As classes resumed for students 

at the University of Michigan on 

Wednesday after a two week break, 

School of Music, Theatre & Dance 

students took the stage in the Hill 

Auditorium. 
The 
undergraduate 

Concerto 
Competition 
was 
their 

opportunity to compete for coveted 

soloist spots alongside one of the 

University’s 
two 
orchestras, 
the 

University Philharmonia Orchestra and 

the University Symphony Orchestra. 

The event saw eight competitors who 

performed solos on sharp pianos, rich 

strings, a euphonium or sang in front of 

an audience of supporters and faculty 

judges. Competitors had 25 minutes 

each to perform their chosen concerto. 

The two winners of the competition, 

announced 
after 
deliberation 
by 

faculty judges, were Ben Deighton, 

Music, Theatre & Dance junior and 

cellist, for his performance of Dmitry 

Kabalevsky’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in 

C Minor, Op. 77 and Nathan Landers, 

Music, Theatre & Dance junior and 

clarinetist, for his performance of 

Oscar Navarro’s II Concerto.

Landers spoke to The Michigan 

Daily following the competition and 

expressed gratitude for the support he 

received during and leading up to his 

performance.

“I’m relieved it’s over,” Landers said. 

“I’m glad I won. I’m thankful for all my 

friends and my family for their support. 

Go blue!”

Deighton said he was looking 

forward to playing with one of the 

full orchestras. He said he was 

especially grateful for the help of his 

piano accompanist, Narae Joo, Music, 

Theatre & Dance collaborative pianist 

for the Strings Department.

“I’m just excited to play the piece 

with an orchestra, because the 

orchestra part has all of the music 

in it, and you really don’t hear it (all) 

with just the piano,” Deighton said. 

“Working with my pianist, Narae Joo, 

she’s amazing and she’s been playing 

with me for the past three years. We’ve 

done a lot of work together, and I really 

appreciate working with her.”

Christopher Harding, chair of 

the Music, Theatre & Dance School’s 

Piano Department, told The Daily 

before the competition that the Hill 

Auditorium was a wonderful venue 

for the Concerto Competition. He said 

it provided all of the competitors with 

an authentic performance experience. 

“(The Hill Auditorium) is one of 

the great performance spaces in the 

northern hemisphere,” Harding said. 

“We have people who come from 

New York, great orchestras like the 

New York Philharmonic that perform 

in New York and Chicago. They stop 

in Ann Arbor on the way because we 

have just such an incredible hall and an 

incredible audience.”

Prior to the competition, Music, 

Theatre & Dance senior Eric Yu, 

another one of the competitors, said 

he was incredibly excited to have the 

opportunity to play his concerto in the 

Hill Auditorium before he graduates.

“Hill (Auditorium) is a great 

stage. It has great pianos and it’s a 

great atmosphere, but the award for 

winning the Concerto Competition 

is a performance with the orchestra,” 

Yu said. “And orchestra performances 

as soloists are really rare. Normally, 

an orchestra, if they want to schedule 

something, they’ll invite a really 

famous musician, or the other way to 

play with an orchestra is (if) you win a 

competition.”

Yu said the prize of playing with 

the University’s orchestras could 

potentially open up post-graduate 

performance opportunities, but he 

primarily saw the competition as a way 

to expand his experience and abilities, 

regardless of whether or not he won.

“You 
only 
become 
a 
better 

performer by performing a lot,” 

Yu said. “If we had to speak on the 

technical side of things, I guess it looks 

good on your resume, but it’s mostly for 

the experience in my opinion. Just by 

performing a lot you become a better 

performer. Performing is not a talent, 

it’s an acquired skill.”

Harding, who coached Yu as well 

as fellow competitor Yan, said he was 

proud of their preparation for their 

concertos.

“Nobody gets to the Concerto 

Competition without working very, 

very hard and working very hard, not 

only for that particular competition, 

but also in studies in general,” Harding 

said. “We find that our best and most 

dedicated students rise to the top and 

they’re the ones who are competing in 

the competition.”

Music, Theatre & Dance junior 

Joseph 
Bickel, 
who 
played 
the 

euphonium — a brass instrument 

similar to the tuba — for the 

competition, 
said 
despite 
the 

instrument’s 
relative 
obscurity 

compared to other instruments such a 

violin or piano, he didn’t find it difficult 

to find a concerto piece he wanted to 

play.

Bickel said he had first encountered 

the piece he played, Vladimir Cosma’s 

Euphonium Concerto, his freshman 

year. He said he previously played the 

concerto’s third movement at a festival 

on its own, but that this competition 

gave him the opportunity to memorize 

the piece in its entirety.

2 — Wednesday, January 11, 2023
News

SMTD undergraduate music students 
perform in Concerto Competition

CAMPUS LIFE

New student pop-up restaurant brings 
UMich community together

SMTD students compete for soloist spots alongside one of the two 
University orchestras

Students serve multicultural four-course meals out of an Ann 
Arbor basement at “Side Door”

NEWS

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Ford senior Chris Wong and Ross and Ford junior Daniel Zhang prepare a meal for guests of The Side Door Dec. 4.

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The SMTD Concerto Competition takes place at the Hill Auditorium Wednesday January 4.

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