A few weeks back, I made my initial visit to Side Biscuit and met Jordan Balduf. After a brief chat about how much of our circles of friends overlap, Jordan agreed to talk to me about his background and what motivates him to do what he does.
Jordan was born in Buffalo, New York, and lived there until he was in middle school. Jordan’s stepmother is Chinese, and she introduced Jordan to a variety of Asian cuisines. The exposure to more exotic flavors and the independent restaurants that dominate the food scene in Buffalo made a big impact on Jordan’s ideas about food. He even mentioned that he got his very first job working as the morning prep person in a pizza and wing joint called Nino’s.
When he was in the 7th grade, Jordan moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. He lived there through his first two years of college where he attended Kalamazoo College to study chemistry. Having spent a lot of his free time in Ann Arbor even while a student at Kalamazoo College, he ended up transferring to Eastern Michigan University and graduated with a degree in Business.
Throughout his time as a student, he worked at a number of restaurants and food businesses in the Ann Arbor area, including Revive and Replenish, Zingerman’s (Deli, Roadhouse, and Mail Order), and at the San Street food cart (the origins of what has become Miss Kim). He had many different roles at these businesses, ranging from working the line to breakfast chef, cheese monger, and employee meal chef. Jordan said that he learned a great deal about running a food business from his time working at Zingerman’s.
The time that Jordan identified as the most transformative period of his career was a pair of two weeklong stages he completed under the direction of Patricia Yao at Khong River House in Miami and under Andy Ricker at Pok Pok in Brooklyn. During these internships, he learned more specifically about Thai cuisine and the impact of well thought-out, full-flavored food. He spoke with admiration about Andy Ricker in particular, regarding his ability to use his skillset to educate about other cultures via food.
Upon his return to Ann Arbor, Jordan continued working in various restaurants like Katoi, Spencer, and Bill’s Beer Garden before settling in at 327 Braun Court. Jordan had previously run pop-ups out of the kitchen there, so he knew its limitations (a six-burner stove with two burners out of order). He took charge of the kitchen and made his mark on the menu, earning a reputation for his chicken wings (winning the MLive’s Best Wings in Ann Arbor designation) even though the kitchen had no deep fryer.
Jordan left 327 Braun Court to run the kitchen at the HOMES Brewery. There he updated the menu to include more of a Thai influence. He also did several food/beer pairings and even some dim sum. And then came COVID.
During the COVID lockdown, Jordan saw examples online of how people around the country were being creative in safely doing pop-up style food businesses. Restaurant suppliers contacted him about having an abundance of chicken wings, so Jordan figured out a way to make it work. He took pre-orders online via Instagram and people paid via Venmo. Over a 12-week run, he went from cooking 800 to 1,300 wings per week.
Side Biscuit occupied its current location in October of 2020 before officially opening in March of 2021. Jordan has stuck to his roots as an independent restauranteur and likes to focus on the lessons he learned about creating full-flavored food and using quality ingredients. In this way he has brought a little bit of Buffalo to Ann Arbor.
