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.
GRACE LAHTI/Daily
The SMTD Concerto Competition takes place at the Hill Auditorium Wednesday January 4.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
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