LA’s most luxurious grocery store could soon be open in New York — but some disgruntled Gothamites are giving the glam news a big Bronx cheer.
Erewhon Market, a high-end organic grocer beloved by influencers and famed for exorbitantly priced eats, is coming to Manhattan, Emily Sundberg’s business newsletter Feed Me reported.
Only the wealthiest, however, will get to experience the pleasure of paying $19 for a single strawberry, $32 for ice cubes, and $20 for a “Hailey Bieber Skin Glaze Smoothie” — the outré outpost will be tucked into a new West Village private padel club — where players will pay a whopping $43,000 just to get through the door.
The elite retreat, named Kith IVY, comes courtesy of Queens-born Ronnie Fieg, CEO of fashion label Kith — and the news isn’t going down smoothly with some of Feig’s fellow New Yorkers, who say that the store, with its interminably sunny, Californian focus on wellness, isn’t welcome among the Big Apple’s bodegas and bagel joints.
“$20 for a smoothie? For that price, I better get a free Yankees ticket and a subway transfer, too,” born-and-raised Manhattanite Marco Lombardi, 33, told The Post.
“New Yorkers don’t need Erewhon to teach us wellness,” he added. “We’ve been doing bagels and coffee for decades — that’s our wellness.”
Brooklynite UX designer Noelani Buonomo, 25, also winced at the report, telling The Post that the chain — revered in Los Angeles — will only add to the homogenization of the West Village.
“There’s nothing distinctly ‘New York’ about it,“ Buonomo blasted. “I just think it has nothing unique to offer, but will further push the city further into influencer culture. I don’t like how everything is a prop. It feels like product placement in real life and it’s really icky to me.”
Lower East Side line cook Tim Rosa, 28, was similarly dismissive of the news.
“I really don’t see any benefit to this at all. Not even for those who can afford it. It kind of feels like a meme — 36,000 dollars so you can access overpriced smoothies and small batch bee pollen? You should be spending that time and money on drug-assisted wellness retreats where you might learn some empathy,” Rosa railed.
“I have a culinary background, and I can appreciate rare ingredients and a heightened shopping experience, but Happier Grocery exists and your parents only need to own one yacht to go there, not two,” he joked, referencing a Lower Manhattan gourmet shop that has become known as NYC’s “Erehwon dupe.”
Lombardi, however, who runs a popular Instagram account highlighting independently owned eateries across New York, concedes that some luxury-loving locals, particularly those who’ve adopted the city as their home much more recently, will adore Erehwon.
“In this new New York City, I think it flies, but for the day-ones, not a chance,” Lombardi, who was born on the Lower East Side, said.
The Post has reached out to Erewhon for comment.
Back in 2021, Erewhon CEO Tony Anitoci teased the possibility of a location opening in New York in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“We are looking at New York City; it’s definitely on the plate,” he said at the time.
According to reports, the Erewhon at Kith Ivy will operate more like a juice bar than a regular grocery store, serving juices and smoothies in the mornings and early afternoons.
Meanwhile, West Village residents have expressed their disapproval over Feig’s proposed plans.
Protestors at a meeting about the club’s liquor license held signs that read “No Rooftop Restaurant” and “No Private Padel,” Curbed reported in March.
The complaints were mainly based on the plan for a rooftop bar and club, which residents said would bring “noise, drunken rowdiness and crime” to the neighborhood.
West Village residents reportedly wrote letters that said “a rooftop venue with padel courts, alcohol, and loud music/live DJ all day until 12 a.m. every night of the week is not at all in line with the character of this area.”
The rooftop bar was ultimately scrapped, though people still continue to argue additions to the venue location — especially the planned “stadium lightning” and “bullet-style noise.”
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