We’ve come a long way from Choo-Choo's and Commuters Bar. Mill Street Brewery, Drake General Store and Balzac’s Coffee Roasters are among the retailers opening soon at the new Union Pearson Express lounge at Union Station. Mill Street's pub will be on the station's second level, in the CIBC UPstairs lounge, enabling travelers to grab a craft brew before boarding their train for Pearson International Airport. The Union Station shop will be Balzac’s 10th. The UP Express, launching June 6, is forecast to carry 2,350,000 passengers a year by 2018.

Drake General Store will sell travel items, souvenirs and apparel. It’s an appropriate partnership, notes company co-founder Carlo Colacci. “We love classic and modern goods that fill us with whimsy and nostalgia, and the UP Express plans to bring an era of nostalgia back to Toronto." Toronto Life reports that Union Chicken, a rotisserie chicken restaurant, will also be opening on the station’s lower level, and Burger’s Priest will have a location there, too. It’s all part of the 165k SF of new retail space planned for the revitalized Union, which will also include a 30k SF food market. (TL)