40 | MARCH 2 • 2023
W
e want people to slow down
and enjoy the finer things
in life — take a pause,
” said
Zachary Berg, co-founder with Will
Werner of Mongers’ Provisions. Their two
specialty food stores are located in down-
town Berkley and Midtown
Detroit.
The experience of shop-
ping at Mongers’ is unlike
picking up food at a super-
market. It takes time to con-
sider the carefully curated
food and beverages encoun-
tered on counters, shelves,
tables and in refrigerated
cases at the Mongers’ stores.
Even the vintage Kelvinator refrigerator in
Berkley is filled. Unless they’ve come for
a favorite item or two, shoppers can feel
challenged to make their best choices after
viewing such an abundance of intriguing
items.
To help them out, customers are encour-
aged to “talk to someone behind a display
case, have a human connection and to hear
stories” about items that catch their fancy.
More than happy to talk about everything
sold is Berg, usually found at the Berkley
Mongers’ store. He is a self-described “head
cheesemonger” — a phrase denoting his
purveying expertise. The team in Berkley
includes manager Sarah Stein and other
mongers trained to be knowledgeable about
the store’s cheese, chocolates and wine. Matt
Newton manages the Midtown store, where
Werner, a degreed geologist, usually spends
his time working on the business.
“I like having one foot in the city and
one foot in the suburbs,
” said Berg, an out-
going man in suspenders who likes getting
out into the community to talk about food
specialties on behalf of the store. He’s done
segments on local television shows, such
as WDIV-TV’s Live in the D and spoken at
other venues. He will lecture on the history
of cheese Oct. 13 at the Baldwin Public
Library in Birmingham and return to talk
about chocolate in early 2024. His TedX
talk at the Livonia Public Library on “The
American Cheese Revolution” can be found
on YouTube. Berg has presented Mongers’
Provisions at the Michigan Jewish Food
Festival in Detroit and offered cheese-relat-
ed pop-ups at Urbanrest Brewing Company,
a craft brewery in Ferndale.
THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
In March, Berg becomes president of the
Michigan Artisan Dairy Guild, a trade
organization promoting cheese. He became
knowledgeable about cheese from his work
mentor Ari Rosenzweig, a partner in Ann
Arbor-based Zingerman’s Deli.
Werner and Berg, friends since they
attended Tamarack Camps, both worked
for a few years in San Francisco. Berg
ran Bi-Rite Market’s cheese department.
He soon followed in 2016 when Werner
returned to Detroit to marry Jamie
Solomon, now director of Scuola Creativa
Preschool in Royal Oak. The
couple have 6-year-old twins,
Jack and Kemp.
For a time, Werner man-
aged his cousin’s store, Gayle’s
Chocolates, in Royal Oak.
The partners’ first retail space
was in Ferndale, prior to their
opening in 2017 a Mongers’
Provisions in Midtown Detroit. In a space
just under 1,100 square feet, Berg and
Warner started out offering a curated selec-
tion of the Three C’s: imported and domes-
tic cheese, charcuterie and chocolate.
As time went on, another focus for
Mongers’ became conserva (tinned fish —
Esther
Allweiss
Ingber
Contributing
Writer
MONGERS’ PROVISIONS
Berkley store
3127 12 Mile Road
(248) 468-4487
Midtown Detroit store
4240 Cass Ave.
(313) 651-7119
Mongersprovisions.com and
Facebook page
Mongers’
Provisions
A place to slow down and enjoy the finer
things — including a great sandwich.
NOSH
DINING AROUND THE D
PHOTOS BY ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER
Will
Werner