Down an alley where the Union Station train tracks tangle with one another is a food incubator full of passionate artisans making everything from pizza and sipping vinegar to boozy cupcakes and fruit-based Thai hot sauce. Typically just a nerve center of kitchens—every once in a while Union Kitchen invites in the food community for happy hour. At the Jan. 9 event, we snapped the mother and daughter team behind Popcorn Queens. Like many, daughter April Wardlaw (right) maintains a day job—as an English teacher. But mom Bonnie Wardlaw is all in. “April actually got me to quit my job,” she tells us. The two sell nine flavors of popcorn online like bourbon pecan and chipotle.

Also in the house Friday was Timber Pizza Co. The mobile wood-fire pizza company is headed by Andrew Dana and Chris Brady, whom we snapped. They have a lot on tap in 2015 including the release of take-home pizza kits and a pizza pop-up dinner at Dolcezza Gelato Factory on Jan. 30. They were slicing the “Green Monster” for the happy hour, which features pesto, fresh mozzarella, feta, kale and summer squash. Find out about the happy hours by signing up for Union Kitchen’s e-newsletter.