Storefront Report: Echo Park eyeglass store focuses on men

The Echo Park boutique and retail scene tends to be primarily a woman’s world. Optician Van de la Plante wants to change that by opening a vintage eyeglass store – Gentlemen’s Breakfast – that caters primarily to male shoppers After parting ways with his business partner at Hotel De Ville Eyewear, De la Plante settled on a tiny 260-square-foot space – home of a shortlived newsstand – on Mohawk Street just north of Sunset Boulevard. De la Plante describes the decor – chocolate brown walls, cigar pipes, and paintings of hunting scenes – as mix of Colonial, Napoleonic era and Edwardian. It’s the background for hundreds of vintage eyeglasses – some nearly a century old – pocket watches, ties, cuff links and other manly accessories. In addition to selling frames, Gentlemen’s Breakfast – named after a regular gathering of de la Plante’s friends – also fills prescriptions, repairs frames and performs other services. The idea behind the decor is to create a clubhouse like feel that will make any guy – at least the ones with a taste for Colonial/Napoleonic era/Edwardian decor – feel at home. “It’s definitely a hole in the wall,” said De la Plante, who opened the shop Feb. 1. But “I just need to do my own thing.”

Top photo by Jesse Saucedo; bottom photo by The Eastsider