{"id":501788,"date":"2026-01-08T17:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T17:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/501788\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T17:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T17:16:14","slug":"see-you-later-hells-kitchen-says-goodbye-to-manhattan-eyeworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/501788\/","title":{"rendered":"See You Later \u2014 Hell\u2019s Kitchen Says Goodbye to Manhattan Eyeworks\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 21 years, Manhattan Eyeworks has been a go-to for Hell\u2019s Kitchen residents in need of eyeglasses and eye care. Now, owner Marina Kleyman is preparing to close the 9th Avenue staple \u2014 and a decades-long chapter in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"ManhattanMarina Kleyman helping customers at Manhattan Eyeworks. Photo: Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n

This past fall, Marina put a \u201cstore closing\u201d sign in the window of her small storefront between W48th and W49th Streets, alongside another advertising 50% off all frames. Since then, a steady stream of customers has kept coming through the door. She\u2019d planned to quietly close before the holiday break, but demand has kept her behind the counter.<\/p>\n

When I stopped by, I had to get in line \u2014 and our conversation was repeatedly interrupted by new customers arriving to try on discounted frames and regulars popping in for one last appointment, or simply to say goodbye.<\/p>\n

As we talked, Marina was helping Leanna Ross-Marans choose a new pair of frames. Along with her parents Karen and Richard, Leanna has been buying glasses from Marina since the shop opened. Leanna was in middle school and Marina was pregnant with her first son, who is now in dental school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real neighborhood store,\u201d Karen said. \u201cIf we ever have an eyeglass issue, we come directly to Marina and she resolves it \u2014 and she always works to make it affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ErinErin Lee Kelly is a fan of Manhattan Eyeworks. Photo: Catie Savage<\/p>\n

Longtime Hell\u2019s Kitchen resident Erin Lee Kelly also singled out Manhattan Eyeworks<\/a> as one of her favorite neighborhood spots in a 2024 West Side Story.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarina is one of the small business owners that make this place a neighborhood,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cShe turns what can be a stressful errand into a fun exchange. I\u2019ve never just popped in and out \u2014 I end up loitering, talking about travel, politics, television, food\u2026 She treats you like family and makes sure you look good!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s regulars like Kelly and the Ross-Marans family that Marina says she\u2019ll miss most \u2014 along with other \u201cold school Hell\u2019s Kitchen people\u201d who enjoy a good conversation as much as she does.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are coming in and hugging me and telling me how happy they were to have me in the neighborhood,\u201d Marina said, tearing up. \u201cI am so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ManhattanManhattan Eyeworks is running a sale until they close up on 9th Avenue. Photo: Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n

Marina will also miss Hell\u2019s Kitchen itself, a neighborhood she\u2019s known since she was five years old. After moving from Russia to Brooklyn, her mom worked in a discount store near Port Authority, while her dad drove taxis for 40 years.<\/p>\n

She remembers riding through the neighborhood with her parents, begging them to take her to one of its many movie theaters \u2014 only later realizing most weren\u2019t exactly family-friendly.<\/p>\n

By the time she opened Manhattan Eyeworks, Marina had moved to Hell\u2019s Kitchen. \u201cIt was really exciting because I was young and ready, and I lived on 44th Street so it was a nice walking commute,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A year after opening the shop, Marina had her first son. She returned to Brooklyn to raise him \u2014 and the two brothers that followed \u2014 commuting back into Manhattan to serve both Hell\u2019s Kitchen regulars and office workers from nearby corporate headquarters.<\/p>\n

She made it through the pandemic, but the shift to remote and hybrid work emptied out midtown offices. At the same time, more customers began moving their business online, to websites like Amazon, Warby Parker, and 1-800-Contacts.<\/p>\n

Marina could have built an online store to compete, but that was never her style. \u201cFor me, it was always about meeting people \u2014 not so much doing things in this sterile way of just shipping products,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s no personal touch there.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s next? \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m still kind of young. Maybe I could do hair color \u2014 there\u2019s a lot of things that I might want to do.\u201d For now, she wants to clean her house and spend more time with her 14-year-old son and Mushy, the golden doodle they adopted last year.<\/p>\n

\"\"Manhattan Eyeworks has always happily welcomed the canine friends of its clientele. Photo: Brennan LaBrie<\/p>\n

As for a closing date, Marina says she\u2019s taking it week by week as demand keeps her open \u2014 but it can\u2019t last forever. For now, there\u2019s still time to grab a new pair of eyeglasses or sunglasses at Manhattan Eyeworks, 709 9th Avenue (between W48\/49th Streets) . Find their hours here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 21 years, Manhattan Eyeworks has been a go-to for Hell\u2019s Kitchen residents in need of eyeglasses and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":501789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,225116],"class_list":{"0":"post-501788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-whats-closing-and-closed"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115860615146535291","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}