Pong Detroit creating an inclusive, active social club

Past the food court and Motown Room bar inside the famed Bert’s Marketplace in Eastern Market is a door to a warehouse filled with ping pong tables. 

Several nights a week, Pong Detroit sets up tables, paddles and ping pong balls for patrons to stop in and play, hang out and enjoy food and beverages from Bert’s. Pong Detroit attracts people from all backgrounds who like playing ping pong, but moreover, people show up to the warehouse looking for community.

And they find it. 

In addition to several weekly open-play ping pong nights, Pong Detroit has a monthly night for wheelchair users and a new event for people with Parkinson’s disease, a ping pong training program for youth that aims to send Detroit kids to compete in China, and soon, a program for seniors. 

“I love the community, you get to meet more people through it,” said Ajit Monteiro, 30, a pediatric resident at a local hospital. Monteiro has been going to Pong Detroit weekly for the last three years after moving to Detroit from India. 

Monteiro, who grew up playing in Mumbai and in college, said he started coming because he was looking for a community outside of work. 

“And this was it,” he said. “We see some competitive people [at Pong Detroit], some people just chilling, but it’s cool that you all get to meet and play together.” 

An inclusive environment 

Mal Lang opened Pong Detroit in early 2020 after he lost his job in marketing and sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lang said he was hoping to provide a more casual place for people to play ping pong, also called table tennis. 

“A lot of the regular table tennis clubs, if you’re not a good player nobody wants to talk to you,” said Lang, who has played since he was a kid. “I used to travel around playing in tournaments and stuff and I always had the idea of opening a place that had food, music, and drinks and was more casual than the normal table tennis clubs.”

For those new to the sport, Lang will provide a quick lesson or visitors can take advantage of a training machine that spits balls out for players to hit back into the net. Cost is $10 per table per hour from 5 to 7 p.m. and $15 per table each hour from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. During the summer, the tables are rolled outside to the front of Bert’s. 

In addition to providing a more casual environment for social ping pong, Lang aims to promote an inclusive environment for all to benefit from its range of physical benefits. Playing ping pong increases heart rate, strengthens muscles and improves coordination and reaction time, according to the British Heart Foundation. There’s also some evidence that playing ping pong specifically helps people with Parkinson’s disease. 

Last month, Pong Detroit teamed up with the Michigan Parkinson’s Foundation and drew a group of 25 participants for its first event for people with Parkinson’s.

In 2022, Lang started a program for wheelchair users in partnership with the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan Foundation and the Detroit Medical Center. Once a month anywhere from 10 to 30 people in wheelchairs come to play. 

On top of that, Pong Detroit has a partnership with the Chinese Table Tennis Federation and the Chinese Consulate with the ultimate goal of sending Detroit youth to compete in China, where table tennis is the national sport, and hosting Chinese players in Detroit. It’s a nod to the historic “ping pong diplomacy” between China and the United States which included a 1972 competition between a Chinese table tennis team and a Detroit team at Cobo Hall, now Huntington Place, with more than 10,000 spectators. 

“I really wanted to not only provide a place for people to come in to play, I wanted to do community stuff,” said Lang. 

A rare find 

Miller London, operations manager of Bert’s, said he played a lot of ping pong growing up in Detroit. But today, he said he doesn’t know of many places left.

“There were tons of places, you could go to the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, you played ping pong in other centers for kids and you played in your basement,” London said. He even remembers playing while attending Detroit’s public schools, but said “I don’t know where you play today.”

Hosting Pong Detroit in the back of Bert’s appealed to him. “It was something different and we know that people like to play ping pong,” he said. 

Another ping pong spot, Drive Table Tennis Social Club in the city’s downtown, closed several years ago. Lang said Wayne State University has a few old tables, but besides that, he doesn’t know of anywhere else in the city to play besides Pong Detroit. 

Kyle Shelest, 27, another frequent visitor of Pong Detroit, played in college and after seeing Pong Detroit on Instagram, stopped by.

“There’s a really good community of players. It doesn’t matter what skill level you are, everyone’s welcome,” he said. “And I’ve become so much better by meeting all these people that are way above me. It’s just a blast. You can always just come and make a friend.” 

Looking ahead, Pong Detroit is going to be a part of the next Asian Night Market and Bookfest at Eastern Market, and possibly partner with Eastern Market Brewing to host ping pong on the closed-off-to-cars Riopelle Street outside of the brewery. And, in the fall, Pong Detroit is planning a Detroit’s Top Chef Ping Pong Tournament pitting Detroit’s top chefs against each other in a game of ping pong. 

“We know all these guys are great chefs, but who’s the best at ping pong?” Lang said. 

Opening right before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, while challenging, hasn’t stopped Pong Detroit’s momentum. 

“It’s already been a pretty good success,” Lang said. 

Pong Detroit is located at 2739 Russell St. and is open Tuesday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.