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

