Mango Optic Offers Eyewear, Exams…and Tropical Fruit Preserves

By Marci Shatzman

How many optical stores have a shelf devoted to homemade preserves? That alone makes Mango Optic different.

The Crespos, licensed optician Gisele and her husband Jaime, set up shop at 8184 Glades Road off Boca Rio Road in the same complex as HomeGoods and Marshalls.

Their place features luxury and hard-to-find European eyewear and a wide range of contact lenses. Eye exams are offered in person and a remote digital exam with optometrists and ophthalmologists called teleoptometry.

Gisele’s from Minas Gerais in southeast Brazil, moved to the U.S. in 2003, and became an optician seven years ago in Massachusetts. Jaime has a marketing and communications background with a masters degree in management. Married for 17 years, they decided to combine their respective expertise.  

“My grandfather was a pharmacist in the little town he grew up in. He was the doctor for emergencies, so that’s in my blood,” she said. “I’m the pharmacist for your eyes.”

Where the mangoes came in was the mature fruit trees they found in the yard of the house they bought in West Boca. That immediately drew them into the local community of mango aficionados. They even welcome mango donations. Now Gisele makes several varieties of mango preserves that patients and customers can choose from.

Back to the optics, appointments are made in advance by phone or online and they also take walk-ins. “It’s a higher level of customer service,” Gisele said, lessons learned from commercial eye stores where she once worked.  

“It’s a dream to be different,” Jaime added.