Hickory is the biggest city in the foothills, and for a long time that fact alone defined it — a manufacturing town, a furniture town, a freight stop on the rail line. The factories are quieter now, but the city has spent the last decade doing something more interesting than mourning them. It's been rebuilding around the one thing the old planners got right: a public square.
Union Square sits at the center of downtown, four blocks of brick and pavement under a row of white sail canopies. On Friday nights it's a concert venue. On Saturday mornings it's a farmer's market. On Tuesday at three it's just a nice place to sit. Around it, a downtown that has earned its second act — restaurants worth a drive, breweries worth a slow afternoon, and storefronts that look like they were built to last, because they were.
The map below covers the walkable core. As with our Morganton guide, we've marked every restaurant and brewery without naming them. The fun is in the walk — read a window menu, hear what's pouring at the bar, follow the live music. The city wants you to wander.