The compact downtown grid is the heart of Asheville. The streets are lined with art deco towers, brick warehouses turned into cafes, and a dense concentration of breweries and bars. Pack Square anchors the eastern edge with the Vance Monument, the art museum, and the courthouse around it; Wall Street and Battery Park Avenue curve through the middle past the Flat Iron Building.
Walking around downtown is one of the city's pleasures. There are buskers on most corners, the Pinball Museum and Asheville Mystery Museum tucked into upstairs spaces, the Grove Arcade as a covered shopping building from 1929. South Slope, just south of Patton Avenue, is the brewery district with a dozen taprooms in a few blocks.