Union Street Station

Friendly service!!! Very nice people and good atmosphere. Cheap drinks but there was a cover (unnecessary)

Time for this place to roll over and die. Paying a $ 5 cover to hear 40 year old men play cover tunes while drinking watered-​down drinks is not my idea of a good time. Go somewhere else.

This place does not live up to the hype, if hype is even a word to use for this place. Service is not chill for the small amount if customers that are here. 0 stars would not recommend but I have to do 1 star so I guess 1 star would not recommend.

Fun bar! Bartenders were all great, very personable, talking, joking around. Didn’t have to wait for drinks.
Treated us really well. We ordered vodka and red bull and bartender let us know how much it was going to be which I can appreciate since it’s a more expensive drink than what alot of their patrons would probably be ordering.
Can’t say much about the rest of the place, but had a good time sitting at the bar, busy enough to people watch but not too crazy.

Great service! Awesome food. We had the Mussel appetizer. Great flavor. Crab stuffed avocado was good also. The Lobster Roll was awesome. Excellent service from Jessica. Loved her. Very nice interior. Comfortable.

We loved this bar! The drinks were reasonably priced. We came on open mic night which was cool.
Our bartender, Gio, was AWESOME. He was so friendly and helpful. We told him we were from out of town and he immediately told us a list of «must do’s.» He was super nice and attentive even during a busy night. I would go back in a heart beat.

My wife and I took a long weekend and headed to TC in mid-​April. I had been in town dozens of times in my life, but never during the off season. I was shocked how many places close early on a Monday night.
After we closed down 2 other places we worried we’d have to go home at 11pm, but we were happy to see Union Street Station open late and full of people. We had a quick night cap. It was a bit divey, but I don’t mean that in a negative, it was a perfectly fine place to grab a drink in our situation. The bartender was nice, and drinks priced fairly. We enjoyed ourselves.
A week later I noticed my credit card was charged 10x higher than the tip I intended. It was likely just an accidental extra zero, it happens. It took me several calls to get the message to the owner, but everyone on the phone was courteous, professional, and apologetic. The owner called me back and was very professional, and promptly took care of the problem.

This place has gone DOWNHILL. I used to like going there for live music. They got rid of the guy that ran the open mic in a SHADY fashion and I have musician friends that have gotten treated like complete crap and have been lied to. And also, I’ve heard the owner sells drugs out of the place. That last part is total here say, but that kind of news travels fast. There’s already enough of a drug problem in TC, and we don’t need trash like that contributing. And most of the waitresses are always trashed and the bartenders are jerks! Apparently striving to be a good business is a thing of the past for them. It’s really too bad, the potential was there, but it has been totally ruined for me. I will not be going back to that place.

A decent music venue/​dive bar with passable food and drinks.
Yes, this is sort of a dive. You know what I mean– it’s loud, crowded, filled with lovable regulars and the assorted local musician who thinks he’s the second coming of Kurt Cobain, etc. As far as a dive goes, the food isn’t bad and the drinks are cheap.
Service is like most dives– take it or leave it. If they get to you, they get to you and if they don’t, they don’t. It’s usually too crowded when a band is playing for the bartenders/​waitresses to pay attention to anyone. Still, the bartenders are on their toes even when the crowd is thick, but it takes patience to wait for them to make anything more complicated than a simple shot or pulling a bottled beer from the cooler if it’s wall to wall people. In that case, just shout across the bar and hope for the best.
The food is typical pub grub, but I ate it and it was okay enough for bar that is more of a music venue than anything. It wasn’t particularly remarkable or memorable for being either good or bad, just basically what one would expect from a bar. The draft beer selection is very mediocre, but the whisky sours are good (depending largely on who is making it) and I tried a Moscow Mule that hit all the right notes.
It can fill up fast on nights with live music and that makes it a little uncomfortable, but overall it’s a nice little local bar, especially on slower nights when the pace is not too frantic. I did get my foot stomped on pretty hard by a highly intoxicated dumb ass clad in biker gear and heavy boots once (I hobbled out with two broken toes, but I guess I shouldn’t have been wearing sandals), but otherwise, everybody is nice enough.
Union Street Station usually has a pretty good band on tap, so the music is often pretty good (note: often, not all of the time). The acoustics are good and you can tell they put some money into their sound system. Heck, the first time that I saw Traverse City’s own Mark Camp was on this very stage back in the day. Oh, to be just turning 21… those were the days.
Unfortunately, the restrooms are pretty disgusting. Honestly, they’re always running out of toilet paper. Yuck. While the bar itself is clean, the bathrooms are not. It would be nice if they bothered to clean it up a bit, no?

We came here for an evening out on the town, and it delivered. We’ve been here several times and always have fun. The door guy and bartenders were very friendly. I don’t know if it was happy hour, but the drinks were very reasonable. Good Michigan beer is on tap. A rock band who sounded quite good played cover songs. It was the most crowded bar on a negative eleven degree night. Super awesome.

Other than live music late at night — nothing to see here. Used to be a great bar — new owners. Not so much now.

This place is a dive but TC has so many «nicer» places to get a drink, it’s refreshing to have a noisy, slightly rowdy bar to go hang out, catch some live music, and meet locals. I enjoy Friday happy hour because you can get a bucket of beer (5 domestic bottles) for $ 6. It’s a deal that they started after Loading Dock closed — because the LD crowd needed a new place to get $ 6 buckets.
On Sunday & Monday nights they have open mic and karaōke. Every Fri & Sat nights they have live bands playing. I’ve never heard a crappy band here. The bar is usually packed by 11:30pm on a weekend. There’s usually a small crowd out dancing and the cover charge is usually quite fair. It’s possible you may spot local celebrities here such as Kenny Olsen and Carter Oosterhouse.
Also, the bouncers do a good job bouncing. They’re very dilligent about ID checks, defusing what could turn into a fight, and escorting people out if they’ve had too much liquid refreshments. If you like noisy crowded dive bars, you’ll love it.

Great staff and drinks and it’s usually the most active place any night out of the week

I like this place.
Because I like dive bars.
I heard the music is good here.
It’s comfortable. Don’t expect much, but that’s the beauty of it– no expectations means you’re never disappointed.
I like that it’s a little dirty. I like that you get stale popcorn and I like that that the bartenders know how to do their jobs.
No need to impress, because it’s not that type of place.

Stopped in to see Stolen Silver play on a Thursday night. The band was amazing!

Had a blast in this place it was a lot of fun the bartender was really friendly and he actually turned us on to a great sushi restaurant!!!

UGH! I don’t often give bad reviews, but this place was one of the worse experiences I have ever had.
My husband and I rolled into town late in the evening for a weekend in TC. We were told the best place for quick eats in a relaxed bar setting was Union Street Station.
Live music from a horrible DJ who can’t mix to save his life and is tone deaf? CHECK!
Bartender with a nice figure but won’t even look at you, much less mix you a drink? CHECK!
Server who takes your order for onion rings and some other fried goodies, then disappears for AN HOUR? CHECK!
Finally brings you the wrong order and can’t find your real order? CHECK!
Pool hogging from locals who are drunk off their kiesters but don’t want to get their butts of the edge of the table so we can play? CHECK!
3 hours, and only 2 drinks later (because of service lag), we got up and left rather upset? CHECK!
Don’t go… it’s a waste of time and money.

not a bad place to grab a drink and some grub. my girlfriend thinks their french onion soup is the best she’d ever had and i’ve heard the chowder is good. personally, i wouldn’t go here on a night they have a musical act unless someone’s paying for your cover charge. This place draws some of the worst bands around and its not just this bar. the whole region is stuck in a time warp. don’t expect to hear anything original or progressive.

On a recent trip to Traverse City, I stumbled across the Union Street Station. I thought it was casual & inviting. The back bar is gorgeous. They have a nice selection of beers, the prices are good and if you’re hungry they feature some decent pub grub as well as hot dogs from the joint across the street.
There wasn’t a band that night but the stage was good sized & it looked like they had a helluva sound system. It wasn’t all that crowded but it was early (10:30 or so) and it was nice not having to huddle outside like a leper to have a smoke.

If the bar closes at 2am, last call should NOT be at 1:15am. They mine as well take a wad of cash and throw it into the street. Seriously!
If live bands are your schtick… this is one of the best places in TC to catch one. I was here on a Saturday during Cherry Fest, and even though I’m not that big of a concert-​goer, I got into it. The band was young, energetic and excited…
It gets crowded, but they keep the windows open (in the summer), which GREATLY helps the situation of breathing. Beer is cold and cheap, people are generally happy, the music is local and you can’t beat the location…
Just stay open til 2am, geeeeez. It’s the weekend and there’s nowhere else to go in this town!