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Final bow for a longtime downtown theater leads our top Austin stories

The Hideout held its final performance in downtown Austin.

Photo by Steve Rogers Photography

Editor's note: The top Austin news of the week includes the final performance for a downtown theater favorite and big funding for arts and culture projects. Plus, we introduce you the Bar of the Year nominees in the 2026 Tastemaker Awards. Catch up on our most popular stories below, then visit this guide for more weekend fun.

1. Longtime improv theater closes curtain on downtown Austin location. After 26 years, Austin's longest-running improv theater has taken its final curtain call downtown. The Hideout Theatre at 617 Congress Ave. went dark over the weekend of March 20. The folks who kept the theater going hope the story will continue in a new location.

2. Austin's top 10 bars of 2026 shake up an already diverse scene. Austinites love bars of all kinds, and the Bar of the Year nominees in the 2026 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards are proof of the city’s range, whether it’s on the menu or in the atmosphere.

Dead Rabbit Austin interior The Dead Rabbit is one of the liveliest pubs in the city. Photo by Levi Travieso

3. Austin game store raises funds for employee injured in bus attack. An Austin game store employee is recovering after stepping in to stop a violent attack on a CapMetro bus, an act of courage his coworkers say reflects who he is.

4. Austin chefs face off in live farmers market cooking competition. Local chefs from L'Oca d'Oro and Lenoir will compete in the third annual Texas Farmers’ Market (TFM) Chef Throwdown in the Mueller neighborhood on April 19.

5. City of Austin awards $24 million in arts and culture grants. The City of Austin's Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment office (ACME) is pouring $24 million into local arts and culture projects — 731 recipients in total. This is the "first full funding cycle shaped by the ACME’s Creative Reset initiative," the city says.

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Street Sales

Austin City Council approves resolution supporting front yard businesses

Photo by Zoe Richardson on Unsplash

The resolution helps Austinites selling products from home by allowing their businesses to be seen and accessed from the street.

Austinites who really love shopping at small, local businesses may be seeing more of them soon thanks to a new resolution by City Council. Approved Thursday, March 26, it encourages Front Yard Businesses (FYBs) — literally, businesses that people operate in their own yards, like farm and bakery stands.

The resolution emphasizes that commercial real estate costs can keep people who would otherwise have a business from starting one. It also points out that having small businesses within residential neighborhoods enhances walkability. Categories it expects to bolster include "artisanal goods, garden stands for plants, and service windows for small-scale repair services."

The guidelines are built in harmony with Texas state legislation (including H.B. 2464 and S.B. 541), which protects cottage food production operations and “no-impact” home businesses, meaning ones that do not generate traffic or noise, or employ enough people to create trouble with occupancy.

However, Austin leaders wanted to take the law one step further; the resolution says, "these laws favor “hidden” commerce over the active, visible neighborhood engagement that defines Austin’s character." The problem was that Land Development Code had banned visible business markers like storefronts and signs. The resolution hopes to "[move] commerce from hidden spare rooms into professional, scale-appropriate ACUs [Accessory Commercial Units] and FYBs."

In practical terms, the resolution allows amendments to the city code to do the following:

Create a new land-use category for businesses up to 200 square feet
Authorize sales by the new ACUs
Prohibit tobacco sales
Allow businesses to operate from front porches, yards, and stands
Remove or lower barriers including car trip limitations, front setback regulations, signage regulations, and more
Create a task force to implement the program
Create a "pink zone" to test the program

The Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) and the nonprofit Homemade Texas have released statements in support of the resolution.

"The proposal before you recognizes something important: small-scale neighborhood commerce is not a problem to be restricted. Rather, it is an asset that strengthens communities," says the letter from Homemade Texas. "Front yard businesses and similar activities help neighbors connect with each other."

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