Chelsea's 21st Wine, Walk, & Shop runs Friday and Saturday, November 6 and 7, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. downtown, and the Ann Arbor Observer's listing shows admission as free. The wine is posted shop by shop on the Chamber's roster, with each merchant listing its own pour and price, and the prices run from complimentary to the cost of a flight.
The weekend also changes from one day to the next. On Friday it's mostly a walk from shop to shop. On Saturday, three pop-up markets open downtown, at the Depot, the Chamber Visitor Center, and Ugly Dog Distillery. Which day you go decides which version you get.
Every door sets its own price
The Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce event page posts each merchant's specials and says the list is updated weekly, so a few may change before Friday. Here is the posted wine and drink lineup as of this week.
| Stop | What's posted for the weekend |
|---|---|
| Main Street Provisions | Complimentary mulled wine and red-wine-washed cheese samples, both days |
| La Jolla | Complimentary wine and truffles, plus 50% off sterling silver |
| Smokehouse 52 BBQ | $5 glass of red or white |
| Jet's Pizza | $5 house wine by the glass, $10 house bottles, $20 premium bottles |
| The Grateful Crow | $6 glass of wine |
| JD's Stage Bistro | $8 glass, $15 three-wine flight |
| Common Grill | Featured red or white by the glass for $9, Friday and Saturday |
| CD Top Shelf | Wine slushies and specials |
| Chelsea Home | Wine samples, plus a pop-up clothing boutique |
| Merkel Furniture & Carpet One | Wine-tasting flights, sold by ticket |
A walk that starts with mulled wine at Main Street Provisions and ends with a flight at JD's Stage Bistro costs only as much as the stops you choose to buy at. Not every stop pours wine, either. Chelsea Farmers Supply is offering Chemex demonstrations and nonalcoholic spiced cider, and Motley Crepe Co. is sampling a nonalcoholic Low Country Bourbon Sugar Black Tea.
Many of the deals are for shopping. Cherry Optometry lists up to 50% off designer frames and is hosting two guest frame vendors. Chelsea Home will enter anyone who spends $125 in a drawing for a $200 gift certificate. Secret Crisis Comics has 25% off board games. Chelsea Outfitters is serving Trenary Toast samples and giving a wool Stormy Kromer can wrap with a qualifying purchase. At the info booth you can pick up a free shopping bag and map, and there's a photo backdrop.
Friday is the shops' day, and the Depot belongs to the painters
The posted specials point to a quieter Friday. The Chelsea Painters hold their holiday art sale at the Chelsea Depot, 125 Jackson St., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday only. Inside the shops, Dragonfly Earth Essentials has tarot readings with Annora Brown from noon to 5 p.m., at $15 for 15 minutes, and walk-ins are welcome. V's Cards and Trading is taking 10% off purchases of $20 or more, also on Friday only.
Shop hours don't all match the event's 10-to-6 window. FarmSudz stays open until 7 p.m. on Friday and has refreshments and scents made just for the event. Chelsea Village Flowers is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. Friday evening ends with music. JD's Stage Bistro has free live music from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
On Friday, then, you get the shops at their own pace, the painters at the Depot until 4, and live music at JD's once the shopping winds down.
Saturday adds three markets to Main Street
On Saturday the Painters' sale is gone, and three separate markets open, each on its own hours. Here's the day in order:
- 10 a.m. The Chelsea Depot Artisans Market opens at the Depot for its 15th year, with handcrafted work by area artists and artisans, until 4 p.m. The Friends of the Chelsea District Library start their used-book sale at the same hour, and it runs until 1 p.m. The Chelsea Run Club also meets at Jet's Pizza, 506 N. Main St., from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
- 11 a.m. The Chamber Visitor Center holds a vendor market until 4 p.m., with Kiwanis Club of Chelsea, Theresa Bolda of Mary Kay, and Eclipse Yoga. It also has free Wine, Walk, & Shop tote bags while supplies last, and a photo booth. The Visitor Center is at 222 S. Main St., Suite B, in the Palmer Auto Service building across from the library. Ugly Dog Distillery opens its sixth annual sip-and-shop vendor market at the same hour, free to enter, with chocolate martini specials, until 3 p.m.
- Noon. JD's Stage Bistro has its first free music set, until 2 p.m., and runs its "Check Under Your Glass" prize game on Saturday. The Cheese Pull food truck sets up at Ugly Dog and stays until 5 p.m.
- 1 p.m. Chelsea Village Flowers closes for the day, much earlier than its 5 p.m. close on Friday.
- 4 p.m. The Depot and Visitor Center markets wrap up. Geek Brush Studio opens a Michigan Watercolor Society reception that runs until 9 p.m.
- 5:30 p.m. JD's Stage Bistro starts its evening set, until 7:30.
The Saturday lineup favors an early start. All three markets are open together only from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., when Ugly Dog's market closes, so that window is the one time all three markets can be visited on the same trip. People who come downtown later get the reception and JD's evening set, but not the markets.
A few deals run both days. Geek Brush Studio has $15 holiday make-and-take paintings, Valiant Bar & Grill takes 10% off the bill if you mention the event, and Susan Jacobs, CPA, PC is hosting local artists Carolyn Adkins of Muddy Dog Pottery and Meg Gower of ART is for the BIRDS. ART is for the BIRDS sets up its bird-themed pop-up in front of 102 E. Middle St.
The Ugly Dog stop on 218 S. Main is about to carry more weight
The Saturday market is a good reason to stop at Ugly Dog this year. The distillery, at 218 S. Main St., makes small-batch spirits from Michigan-raised raw materials, and its regular hours on Friday and Saturday are noon to 10 p.m.
That address may soon pour beer as well. The Sun Times News reported that on October 19, Manchester Brewing owner Jason Cooper asked Chelsea City Council for approval to begin the application to transfer the business and its brewing license to Chelsea. He named the Ugly Dog property as the site, where Manchester Brewing would be a subtenant, and its products would be offered there. The paper quoted Cooper on the reason: "as the conditions change within our industry and the overall hospitality industry, for our long-term growth, we've decided that a relocation is in order." Council member Jacquelyn Bullerman called it "two local businesses working collaboratively," according to the same report. For now, Manchester Brewing is still serving in Manchester.
So on Saturday you'll be shopping Ugly Dog's market at the address where Chelsea may soon have a brewery and a distillery sharing one door.
The same corners come back in four weeks
Several of this weekend's stops show up again in the Chamber's Hometown Holiday calendar. The windows at Susan Jacobs, CPA, PC, 102 E. Middle St., where ART is for the BIRDS sets up this weekend, will hold a gingerbread house display from December 1 through January 8. Santa Mail opens November 28 at Palmer Commons, 304 S. Main St., and letters received by December 14 are eligible for a reply.
The tree lighting is Friday, December 4, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Pierce Park, 901 S. Main St., with cocoa, pizza, a sing-along with the Beach Middle School choir, and Santa. The next evening, December 5, the light parade steps off at 6 p.m. and runs down Main Street from Old US 12 to E. Middle St. Entrants line up at Chelsea State Bank, 1010 S. Main St., by 5 p.m., and parade applications are due December 3. Over at the Purple Rose Theatre, Jeff Daniels has guitar, song, and storytelling performances December 26 through 31, and general ticket sales begin Tuesday, November 17, at 1 p.m.
Weekends like this one show what the blocks between the Depot and Middle Street offer. If you're weighing a home within walking distance of these markets, or getting a Chelsea home ready to show this winter, JoAnn Barrett would be glad to walk through it with you. Schedule a Free Consultation.
