🤠 Where to see Willie Nelson this summer

Willie Nelson Is Going on Tour

Willie Nelson is headlining the 2026 Outlaw Music Festival Tour, which has 12 dates, including Nelson’s annual Fourth of July Picnic. The picnic is back in Austin this year, too. [Blackbird Presents]

City Staff Want Cap-And-Stitch Project Paused

City staff have advised Austin City Council members to pause a project to put parks over Interstate 35 because no private donors have offered up funds. Staffers don’t want the city to commit any more public money to the project. [KUT]

The Best Pool Tables in Austin

Playing pool is cheap, indoors, and a great way to meet people — and fits in perfectly with Austin’s relaxed vibe. Looking for the best tables in Austin? Start with this guide! [City Cast Austin 🎧]

Strange Downtown Bench Railings, Spikes Removed

Metal railings and spikes were removed from downtown benches this week after they mysteriously appeared in January. The city still does not know who installed them. [Austin American-Statesman]

Moving to San Marcos for college in 2012, I had no idea what awaited me. I’d grown up in the lanes of Krogers, Tom Thumbs, and the occasional Albertsons grocery stores in Dallas. I never considered what grocery stores could be.

Enter: H-E-B. This might appear to be a little too much for the lead-in to an article about a grocery store. But that’s what H-E-B does. Through freshly made butter tortillas, disaster response, and highly curated shelves, H-E-B has developed a cultlike following since its inception in South Texas 120 years ago.

“You know, it’s just a sweet little company, honestly. It really is,” Heidi Post, Senior Director of Public Affairs for Central Texas at H-E-B, told us.

Of course, Post acknowledged that “little” is the wrong word to describe H-E-B these days. H-E-B has sales of more than $50 billion and operates more than 440 stores across Texas and in Mexico. The company, which started operating in the Austin area in 1938, continues to expand with locations in Lubbock, and in Dallas-Fort Worth.

So, how does a grocery store that started in one room in 1905 become huge enough to have Jim Parsons, the “Big Bang Theory” actor who was born in Houston, voice a baby for its Super Bowl 2026 commercial?

It’s a combination of things, of course. A combo loco, if you will.