“We are spending a million just on the patio,” Emad Yacoub was telling me the other week, giving me a peek of his soaring new resto on what used to be the TSX trading floor in Exchange Tower, on Toronto’s King Street West.

From stocks to steaks! That’s right.

Remember when Union Station had but a Cinnabon and a bunch of trains to its name? Now, in a surprising twist, the transit hub has become one of Toronto’s hottest shopping destinations, complete with numerous new shops (and more opening soon, including Almond Nail Bar), fun eatery options (bao, anyone?), and art installations like “Here Now, Here Always: Walk With Us” by Anishinaabe artist Emily Kewageshig, which is part of the station’s ongoing collab with the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.