December 2, 2009 - Lawrenceville's got a new boutique, and it's pretty darn easy on the eyes.

Opening in early November, Eye Candy, at 5126 Butler St., provides full optician services as well as customized fittings and the choice of about 500 handmade glasses frames.

Where most opticians' offices and eyewear retailers resemble medical suites, Eye Candy feels more like a designer boutique. The walls are a rich raspberry and floors a polished wood, Regina Spektor's latest piano-pop album plays softly in the background, and a decadent chandelier illuminates the shop, which is filled not with severe institutional furniture, but with delicate vintage pieces that harbor frames unlike anything you'd find at a chain.

Eye Candy sells what optician Katie Bulger calls "elite" eyewear lines: Lafont from Paris, Grotesque from Germany, Oliver Goldsmith sunglasses from London and Hoffmann natural horn that will hold up over the years far better than anything plastic (can you say "sustainability?"). Eye Candy's frames are hand-cut filigree, colorful layered plastics and heavy plastic cat eyes, and there's even a children's corner, inspired by owner Monica George Krasinsky's young son. Frames start at around $300, and can run well over $1,000 a pair. Eye Candy provides full optician services, and is planning to add an opthamologist (the owner's husband, actually) a couple days a week down the line.

Eye Candy's frames are not lined up for customers to handle at their will. Instead, they're tucked away. Sit, have a cup of something steamy, and tell optician Katie Bulger what you want. She'll pull what you think suits you, and even some surprises. Bulger, a board-certified optician with 10 years experience, has also owned and operated Sugar boutique, at 3703 Butler St., for the last three years. She sees Upper Lawrenceville now as what Lower Lawrenceville was four years ago: On its way up, filled with emerging galleries, bars and boutiques, with room for more.

In part, that's why Monica George Krasinsky opened Eye Candy. The fulltime nurse anesthetist has always loved designer eyewear, so there's that, but also, she wanted to get in on the Lawrenceville action. She bought the building where Eye Candy is located, totally renovated it, and opened Eye Candy. There's still a storefront available next to Eye Candy (though Bulger hints there might be an announcement soon about a retailer moving in), and of the two freshly rehabbed one-bedroom apartments upstairs, one is still available for rent.

Read more: http://www.popcitymedia.com/devnews/eyecandy120209.aspx

Publication: Pop City Media

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