Shopping in Santa Barbara

Eyeglass Factory combines 30 years of retail experience with a huge selection of stylish eyewear, which made it a finalist in the Santa Barbara Independent's Best of 2012 competition. After optometrists examine eyes at a convenient next-door location, men and women can unilaterally browse the collection of budget-friendly and designer brands. Staffers can handcraft lenses within onsite production laboratories in less than an hour, with the notable exception of clown-size prescription trifocals.

For more than 15 years, the caring crew at Eyeglass Factory has provided free services and glasses to people in the community who cannot afford vision care. They work in conjunction with Surgical Eye Expeditions International (SEE), a Santa Barbara–based nonprofit organization committed to ensuring that optical health is within everyone's reach.

Matilija Nursery yields seasonal crops of plants native to the Golden State and farther-flung environs—a stroll through the nursery’s rolling fields reveals such nonindigenous offerings as bearded irises that bloom in both spring and fall. Though the nursery has supplied Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties with flora since 1992, its in-house botanical specialists began to hybridize Pacific Coast irises only recently, and the resulting varieties have proven as colorful as a sailor's vocabulary. Befitting of those who work so close to the earth, the nursery’s staff supports eco-friendly practices and populates the gardens with noninvasive, low-water plants. Customers can browse an online plant-availability database that regularly features botanicals such as matilija poppies, manzanitas, and hummingbird sages capable of luring their hovering namesakes in for a long drink of nectar.