Chelsea

Football Families

At dusk, on fall Fridays across the county, the world of high school football comes back to life, like a prep sports version of Brigadoon. The marching bands. Singsongy cheerleader chants. An announcer’s booming voice. Armored athletes crashing into each other. And the bleacher crowd’s claps and jeers at the action unfolding before them, on 100 yards of astroturf.

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Chelsea Outfitters Moves and Grows

Megan Trenary, who opened Chelsea Outfitters last year with her husband, Matt, has quadrupled the general store’s space with their move across the street to the historic Kempf Bank building on the corner of Main and Middle. Chelsea Outfitters’ move created an opening for Richelle Reese to realize her longtime dream of launching her own shop, Reese Chic Boutique.

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All in the Family

Steve Lesko and his younger sister Ciara attended Chelsea Public Schools, where Lesko played the violin starting in fifth grade. By freshman year of high school, he’d “burned out” on classical music and joined the Chelsea House Orchestra. That was where “I fell in love with Celtic music,” says Lesko.

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Dan Kolander Is Back in Town

Husband-and-wife team Dan and Sarah Kolander—longtime owners of Dan’s Downtown Tavern in Saline—purchased Chelsea Burger, in the space formerly occupied by Seitz’s Tavern. In an interview before a planned late-September opening, Dan Kolander says they’ll serve a “simple, easy menu” of burgers, sandwiches, wraps, and weekly specials—and they’ve applied for a liquor license.

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Chelsea Home Replaces Whitetail

Whitetail, Mary Baude’s design, home, and lifestyle shop on S. Main, closed in April. She’d launched her business in Dexter in 2016, and moved it to Chelsea in 2022; in March 2024, she announced her retirement on Instagram. Chelsea Home, interior designer Kitty Golding’s boutique, is set to open by November 8 in Whitetail’s former space.

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Zoom Readings

It was July of last year, and she had to finish What Springs Forth for a Zoom reading. It would be her first chance to hear her play—about “middle-aged friends who head for what they think will be a spa retreat and wind up battling [the elements], each other, and their inner demons”—read aloud.

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Chelsea Gets a Starbucks

Starbucks opened in mid-September in the new three-building retail development next to Culver’s on S. Main. A couple days after opening, store manager Timothy Lowery—with his headset on and drink order labels stuck to a few of...

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Two Space Swaps in Chelsea

Before Dana McGrath announced the closing this summer of La Maison, her furniture and home decor boutique on Main St., she shared the news with her building neighbor, Deborah Coy. Coy had always wanted to move her women’s...

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