Main Street Provisions, owned by husband-and-wife team Phil and Vanessa Coulson, offers artisan cheeses, meats, and gourmet food items in the Sylvan Building. | J. Adrian Wylie
On a September weekday at lunchtime, husband-and-wife chefs Phil and Vanessa Coulson work side-by-side near the front windows of Main Street Provisions. Open since February, the shop offers artisan cheeses, meats, and gourmet food items in the Sylvan Building, next door to Agricole Farm Stop.
The pair prepares a cheese and charcuterie board for Kimber Zatkovich and her coworker, Elise Brantley. The owner of marketing firm Custom Ideation across the hall, Zatkovich says she’s “a regular,” and is also a member of the Coulsons’ cheese club. The club offers three new cheese selections monthly, as well as after-hours gatherings featuring the chefs’ pairings.
Vanessa, a Boston native—who sports a Red Sox hat today—says the cheese and charcuterie boards, which come in four sizes, “have been selling really well” for meals, parties, and even camping trips. With more than 150 items—including crackers, olive oils, chocolates, and jams, as well as Dexter’s Raterman bread and Crust baguettes—Vanessa says she hopes the shop “fills a need” downtown.
The Coulsons, who met when they worked as chefs at the same restaurant in Boston, married and moved to Michigan in 2018 to be closer to Phil’s family. They operated their Sanich Union food truck at local venues, including Agricole and Robin Hills Farm, until The Nest at Robin Hills hired them in 2023 to run the restaurant’s kitchen. When the two parties couldn’t come to an agreement on their contract last year, the Coulsons “couldn’t find a suitable and affordable restaurant space in the area, [so] we decided to pivot,” Vanessa explains.
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The shop is inspired by one of their “favorite places”—Formaggio Kitchen in Boston’s South End—and Vanessa’s two years in cheese production at Zingerman’s Creamery provided valuable experience. “So much pimento! So much cream cheese!” she laughs, recalling her time there. She eventually “graduated to making fresh mozzarella, Brie, Manchester, and pasteurized cheeses.” They sell a couple of Zingerman’s cheese products at their shop.
The Coulsons say they try to complement neighbor Agricole’s local inventory by offering international and other hard-to-find items. They also partner with downtown businesses for events, including Withington’s wine and beer shop. Floral sprigs from Chelsea Village Flowers adorn their boards.
For cheese novices, Vanessa recommends one of the cheddars or Goudas, and says the Prairie Breeze aged white cheddar from Iowa’s Milton Creamery is a customer favorite, as is the Brie-style Délice de Bourgogne from France. “It’s like butter! … probably the thing [the most] people come back for.” Meats range from Oregon salami cotto to an Italian eighteen-month prosciutto di Parma.
Vanessa says they recently “got the green light” to make, package, and sell their own food items. “Customers have said they miss our cooking,” she says, and “we miss the pace and the creativity.” Planned offerings include their handmade pastas, Bolognese sauce, roasted onion dip, cheese sauce, sour cream coffee cake, and handcrafted Boursin and pimento cheeses.
“No offense, you can buy great things at Costco,” she says, “but we can help to broaden your horizons.”
Main Street Provisions, 114 N. Main, Chelsea. (734) 210–5643. Wed. 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Thurs. & Fri. 11 a.m.–7 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Closed Mon. & Tues. mainstreetprovisions-chelsea.com