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