NO SECOND FIDDLE.

• Author: Mims, Bryan

THE TOWN JUST SOUTH OF NORTH CAROLINA'S FAMOUS GOLFING MECCA IS GROWING IN ITS OWN. UNPRETENTIOUS WAY.

Aberdeen is a town basking in the shadows of some pretty lofty pines: Pinehurst. Southern Pines. Whispering Pines. They're renowned and refined communities noted for fabulous golf resorts, horse farms, well-manicured neighborhoods and youthful retirees. Southern Moore County is among the nation's greatest golf destinations, with the legendary Pinehurst No. 2 barely more than a golf ball's flight from the Aberdeen town limits.

The town, a little lesser known than its neighbors, is quickly approaching 8,000 residents and "is not trying to prove anything to anybody," local baker and business owner Martin Brunner says.

"We're not trying to keep up with anybody. We're our own town, and I think that's the really cool thing about it."

Aberdeen is named for the city in northeastern Scotland, also a golfer's paradise. Highland Scots settled in the Sandhills in the mid-1700s, lured by the boundless longleaf pine forests that oozed with tar, pitch and turpentine--major moneymakers in early North Carolina. This Scottish heritage explains the red tartan pattern on the town's emblem, which adorns benches and light post banners in downtown. Another design on the logo is the locomotive, a nod to the Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad Co., which linked the town with Raeford in Hoke County and became one of the state's most successful shortline operators. These days, patrons of the Railhouse Brewery chugalug porters, pale ales and North Carolina-distilled whiskey. Founded by a sailor and a soldier in 2010, the brewery overlooks the junction of two tracks and the old Union Station Depot, now a railroad museum with a renovated red caboose outside.

On a warm, slow-going weeknight, a man with arms sleeved in tattoos sits at an outside table with Nicole Meyer, the restaurant's manager. A native of Tacoma, Wash., she says Aberdeen carries a whiff of her hometown. "My opinion is not going to be popular," Meyer warns as she launches into a comparison between the hipster West Coast city and this Southern whistle stop. "Tacoma is known for being a little rough around the edges, but also cultural," she says. "I feel like Aberdeen is a little that way. It's not as polished as Southern Pines, but it's kind of real. There are some really great people who live here, some really talented people."

She points out the eighth annual Spring Spree in May, which attracted more than 80...