Original Rainey Street Bar Lustre Pearl Opens In Far South Austin

Rainey Street bar Lustre Pearl expanded with yet another location, this time slated for far south Austin, as originally reported by CultureMap Austin. Lustre Pearl South opened at 10400 Menchaca Road as of March 14, 2021 with on-site services.

The southern Lustre Pearl features batting cages and ample outdoor seating. For food, there are two current trucks: Latin street food truck Matador and barbecue truck Wunder Pig BBQ Co. Two additional trucks will be added later: turkey burger spot Gobble Gobble and chicken wing trailer Tommy Want Wingy.

Owner Bridget Dunlap opened the original Lustre Pearl in 2009, and it was one of the first bars to turn the entertainment district into the booming nightlife area today. She had to close the bar in 2014 to make way for condo development (now where Millennium Rainey Street stands).

To preserve Lustre, she actually physically moved the building over to Linden Street and reopened it as Lustre Pearl East in 2015 with an additional building. To further maintain Lustre’s presence on Rainey, Dunlap even opened another Lustre Pearl across the street from the bar’s original location in 2016.

This Lustre Pearl South marks the fourth overall location of Lustre Pearl: three (including this Menchaca Road) in Austin, and one in Denver, which opened in 2017.

Dunlap’s company Dunlap ATX also runs Clive Bar (which is currently being renovated to add extra floors) and Container Bar, both found on Rainey Street.

Update, April 26, 3:36 p.m.: This article, originally published on April 3, 2019, has been updated to include Lustre Pearl South’s opening status and date.

• Lustre Pearl South [Instagram]
• New lunch spot makes headlines on the east side, plus more Austin food news [CultureMap Austin]
• All Coverage of Lustre Pearl [EATX]