The first one. Welcome.
A free lawn concert, a new East Side oyster bar, and a school budget worth two minutes.
This is a sample of our first edition. The real one sends Thursday morning. Subscribe to get it.
Hi friends. Seven years ago we moved to Austin from Pennsylvania for what was supposed to be one year. We are still here, now with a toddler, another boy on the way, and a running list of places we keep meaning to get back to. That list is the reason you are reading this.
For years the question we got most, from friends, from family, from everyone who moved here after we did, was a version of the same thing: what should we actually do this weekend? Not the forty-event roundup. The two or three things worth leaving the house for. We never had a good answer written down, so we started writing one.
This is that answer, sent every Thursday morning. Three things, no more. One place to eat, one thing to do, and one thing to know about the city we share. If a week is quiet, we will say so. If a week is loud, we will choose for you. That is the whole promise. Let us start with this weekend.
A New England oyster bar, hiding in an East Side bungalow
Austin Oyster Co. opened this spring in a converted bungalow on East Cesar Chavez, and it commits to the bit completely. There is a small lighthouse on the back wall, a framed photo of JFK by the door, and a raw bar flying oysters in from Maine and Massachusetts to a landlocked city that has no business having oysters this good. Order a dozen to start, then the brown-butter lobster roll, then the Tom kha clams, which trade the usual broth for a coconut and galangal version that is the most surprising thing on the menu. The Infatuation gave it an 8.8 last week. It is a splurge, so save it for the night you want the meal to be the event.
Austin Oyster Co. → · 2502 E Cesar Chavez St
A free symphony on the lawn, by the lake
On Sunday evening, members of the Austin Symphony set up on the Hartman Concert Lawn at the Long Center, on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, and play for free. June 7 is the wind ensemble, a program that moves from light classical to jazz to a few film scores, the kind of night that works whether or not you know the pieces. Bring a blanket, a picnic, and bug spray. Lawn chairs are fine, and dogs are welcome. Get there before 7 to claim grass with a clear line to the water. It is outdoors and weather-dependent, so glance at the sky before you load the car. If you would rather something louder, Banger’s on Rainey is throwing a free, all-weekend Hotoberfest, beer garden and live music included.
Hartman Foundation Concerts in the Park → · 701 W Riverside Dr
The school district’s budget drops today, and you have until June 18 to weigh in
Austin ISD makes its proposed 2026-27 budget public today, and it has a gap of roughly 181 million dollars to close. On the table are larger class sizes in the upper elementary grades, less teacher planning time, and changes to how magnet schools handle transportation. None of it is final yet. The board votes on June 18, and until then the district is taking public comment. If you have a view on where the cuts should and should not land, the comment card is open through 5 p.m. on June 18, and you can sign up to speak at that meeting. This is the rare civic deadline that is still genuinely open while the decision is being made.
See you next Thursday. If someone you know keeps asking where to go this weekend, forward this to them.
Carissa.What is the one place you always take out-of-town visitors for their first real Austin meal? Reply to any edition and tell me. I read every one.