In early April, Austin always seems like the city is intentionally trying to tempt you outdoors.
The weather gets nicer, the calendar fills up, and suddenly your quiet plan to stay in turns into three texts, a patio drink, and some event you swear you just heard about an hour ago. That’s my favorite version of this place. Not polished. Not overly scheduled. Just a city that keeps giving you reasons to wander around and have a better day than you expected.
So, this week’s issue focuses on that. A bit of spectacle. A touch of neighborhood vibe. Some startup ambition. And a bit of “how did I end up eating this in a parking lot and loving it?” Which, honestly, is a pretty solid Austin formula.
This Weekend
Date/Time: Friday, April 3 at 7:30 PM
Location: Long Center, Dell Hall
Price: Varies
This is one of those picks that works whether you want a real night out or just need to break the routine. Blue Man Group hits the Long Center on April 3, and it’s the kind of loud, visual, slightly chaotic fun Austin pulls off well. Not a bad Friday plan.
Date/Time: Friday, from April 3 to April 5
(Friday 3 PM-10 PM, Saturday-Sunday 1 PM-10 PM)
Location: Circuit of The Americas
Price: Varies
I’m usually suspicious of anything that feels engineered for Instagram, but FoodieLand gets a pass because it’s basically an open-air excuse to eat recklessly with friends. It runs all weekend at COTA with 100-plus food vendors, which is reason enough to go. Come hungry. Wear forgiving pants. Don’t overthink it.
Date/Time: Sunday, April 5, from 9 AM to 1 PM
Location: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Price: Varies
This is for people who’ve reached the point where buying plants feels thrilling, or at least soothing. The Wildflower Center’s public spring native plant sale lands Sunday, and it’s the kind of event that makes Austin feel like Austin in a quieter way. You go in for one herb and leave convinced you can redesign your yard, balcony, or front steps. I support the delusion.
Date/Time: Friday, April 3 at 11 AM
Location: UMLAUF Sculpture Garden + Museum
Price: Included with admission
If your ideal weekend includes one moment to slow down, this is my pick. UMLAUF has a guided tour of Women Who Wander on Friday morning led by featured artist Tammie Rubin. It’s art, it’s outdoors, and it’s a nice counterweight to the louder stuff happening this weekend.
Startup & Tech
Austin Startup Meetup
Date/Time: Monday, April 6, from 6 PM to 9 PM
Location: Station Austin, 701 Brazos St.
Link: Meetup.
This is one of the cleaner ways into Austin tech if you want the authentic version, not the LinkedIn version. The April 6 meetup features networking, ecosystem updates, and lightning pitches, so you’ll probably leave with one valuable conversation and one slightly overconfident idea. That’s a solid batting average for startup events.
Authentic Austin: Conscious Connection for Founders, Entrepreneurs, and Curious People Meetup
Date/Time: Monday, April 13 at 6:30 PM
Location: Capital Factory
Link: Authentic Austin
I like this one because the name gives it away a little, but in a good way. Not every tech gathering needs to feel like a race to sound smarter than everyone else. Capital Factory has this meetup scheduled for April 13, and the vibe focuses more on making connections than on performance. Austin tech is better when it remembers that real people live here, too.
Eat & Drink
Order something Mediterranean, then add one extra thing you weren’t planning on
Location: Hyde Park
This week, I’d recommend checking out Oria. Eater Austin just featured it on the March 2026 heatmap of the city’s top new restaurants, highlighting its Mediterranean menu and patio.
That already sounds like a great Austin combo to me. The city sees plenty of flashy openings, but the ones that stick around usually make you want to come back on a random Tuesday. Oria seems like one of those places.
Austin Life
The I-35 cap-and-stitch dream just ran into real money problems
If you live here long enough, you develop strong opinions about I-35, whether you want them or not.
This week, KUT reported that city staff is urging the Austin City Council to pause further commitments to the cap-and-stitch plan over the highway because costs are rising and outside funding hasn’t materialized. I still love the idea of reconnecting parts of the city split by that road.
But this is Austin in a nutshell: big civic ambition, tough math, and a deadline that’s now making everyone nervous.
Only in Austin
The city literally declared Waterloo Ice House Day
Only here would a local restaurant anniversary feel both silly and perfectly fitting.
Mayor Kirk Watson officially proclaimed March 24, 2026, as “Waterloo Ice House Day” to celebrate the restaurant’s 50 years in Austin. Honestly, I understand. This city loves landmarks, enjoys nostalgia, and really values places where people have spent decades eating queso and watching games.
It’s very Austin. It’s also kind of sweet.
Go do something a little unplanned. That’s usually when Austin gets interesting.
See you next week,
Owen
Owen Callaway moved to Austin in 2015 for a product manager position at a fintech startup. Although the startup didn’t succeed, Austin did. After spending his first year planning to return to Chicago, Owen was won over by tacos, Barton Springs, and the chance to explore new neighborhoods.
Having lived in East Austin, South Congress, and Bouldin Creek, he started This Is Austin to answer the same three questions his friends asked: “Where should I eat?”, “What’s worth doing?”, and “Should I move here?”