Two years ago, Jon Kasgorgis opened a functional and psychedelic mushroom shop, Spores, at Telegraph and Schoolcraft in Detroit.
“It shocked me, in all honesty, the amount of different types of people that visit us,” he says. “From ninety-year-old women driving from the U.P. to nineteen-year-olds trying to focus and go to school … doctors, lawyers. It’s everybody.”
He and three longtime buddies, all from West Bloomfield Township, have now expanded the concept with a grab-and-go coffee bar in Pizza Bob’s former spot between U-M’s central and athletic campuses. Spores Cafe has no seating but offers a range of to-go coffee drinks sourced from Caribbean Roasters of Trinidad & Tobago, where Kasgorgis lived for about a decade. Infusion with mushroom extracts is optional.
He says functional varieties are aimed at increasing mental clarity, boosting energy,
or relieving anxiety, PTSD, and depression. Psychedelics, depending on the dosage, produce a more intense experience of distorted perceptions. They’re available in gummies, chocolate bars, drink mixes, and dried forms. “We try to guide [customers] the best we can without giving them any kind of medical advice,” Kasgorgis says.
Clearly passionate about his products, he reports no legal blowback so far, as Detroit and Ann Arbor have effectively decriminalized entheogenic plants and fungi.
“As somebody with ADHD and [who] took Adderall my whole life, I was able to stop taking that by just refocusing on taking lion’s mane and Chaga and reishi and different types of functional mushrooms,” he says.
They’re looking for a local graffiti artist to repaint the side wall that still references Pizza Bob’s, which is now down the block.
Spores Cafe, 814 S. State. (734) 888–MUSH (6874). Mon.–Sat. 8 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.–6 p.m. sporescafe.com
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