Meet the Team

The Visionary. 

Bridget Dunlap leapt into Pearl Bar, her first business venture in Houston  feet first, with grit and a bold vision and paid off her investors within four months of opening. 

This single mom working three jobs to pay rent and keep  her baby in diapers could not afford to fail and would not stop until  her vision was realized. Pearl Bar’s success enabled her to open Lustre  Pearl bar on Rainey Street in Austin. Where others saw a grungy,  torn-down neighborhood, Dunlap recognized massive potential for the  charming block already green-lighted for massive development. Lustre  Pearl’s near instant success allowed her to sell off her Houston venture  to invest wholeheartedly in the quickly transitioning Austin  neighborhood.

Dunlap followed up her success  with Lustre Pearl by opening Clive Bar and Bar 96 in quick succession,  and later opening Container Bar on the same block. Her bold move to open  bars on Rainey initiated a new entertainment district in Austin and  heralded an era of rapid growth in that neighborhood.

While developers eventually took over the original corner  lot where Lustre Pearl thrived, Dunlap and her husband, Chris Parker,  picked themselves up, and dusted themselves off.  When Lustre’s head was  cut off, instead of two heads growing back, she sprang forth with  three, more powerful than the mythical Hydra. Lustre’s reincarnation  came in the form of a modern Lustre Pearl on Rainey Street, Lustre Pearl  East (built around the original Lustre house), and Lustre Pearl Denver.  

Business organizations, MBA  programs, women’s’ groups, and international organizations frequently  invite Dunlap as a motivational speaker.  She also travels to counsel  young entrepreneurs on urban business development and creating  entertainment districts. 

Dunlap likes to party hard, travel often, read, write,  sing, roller skate, and karaoke among other very sophisticated  activities.

The McGyver. 

The Linchpin.