New York City is no stranger to culinary spectacle, but the latest West Coast import is stirring up more than just smoothies. On September 3, 2025, reports surfaced that Erewhon Market—Los Angeles’ most famously extravagant organic grocer—will soon make its East Coast debut. But this isn’t your average grocery expansion. Instead, Erewhon’s arrival will be tucked inside Kith Ivy, an ultra-exclusive private padel and wellness club in the West Village, where membership costs as much as a luxury car.
For those unfamiliar, Erewhon is not just a grocery store—it’s a cultural phenomenon. Born in Boston in the 1960s as a humble natural foods shop, the brand has since transformed into a California wellness empire, now boasting 11 locations. According to Forbes, Erewhon’s reputation is built on more than just organic produce. It’s a status symbol, a place where the act of buying kombucha doubles as a social event, and a single Japanese strawberry can set you back $19. The store’s infamous celebrity smoothies—like the $20 Hailey Bieber Skin Glaze Smoothie or the $23 Kendall Jenner Peaches and Cream—have become TikTok fodder and luxury lifestyle talking points.
But Erewhon’s New York experiment is a different beast. Instead of opening a flagship store on the city’s bustling streets, the brand will operate a miniature “tonic bar” within Kith Ivy, a three-floor, members-only club dedicated to the increasingly popular sport of padel. The cost of entry? A jaw-dropping $36,000 initiation fee, plus $7,000 annually—totaling $43,000 just to walk through the door, as reported by the New York Post and Curbed. The amenities on offer at Kith Ivy are as exclusive as the price tag: padel courts, a boutique, a gym, a steam room, a sauna, a jacuzzi, and a spa designed by Giorgio Armani. There’s even a new restaurant, The Living Room, from the team behind Café Mogador.
The man behind this opulent venture is Ronnie Fieg, the Queens-born CEO of fashion label Kith. Fieg’s vision is clear: blend fashion, sport, food, and wellness into a single, aspirational experience. According to Forbes, this move dovetails with Kith’s broader strategy of creating cultural hubs for tastemakers, not just retail outlets. Fieg’s recent Instagram post revealed floor plans showing Erewhon’s mini-store perched above Kith Ivy’s cold plunge and treatment rooms, further cementing its role as a luxury wellness destination.
Yet, not everyone is rolling out the red carpet. The news of Erewhon’s arrival has sparked a wave of skepticism—and in some cases, outright protest—among New Yorkers. Local residents in the West Village have voiced their concerns about noise, “drunken rowdiness,” and the potential for crime stemming from the club’s development. Earlier plans for a rooftop bar and restaurant were scrapped after heated meetings and protests, where, as Curbed reported, neighbors waved picket signs and threatened litigation.
“$20 for a smoothie? For that price, I better get a free Yankees ticket and a subway transfer, too,” quipped Marco Lombardi, a born-and-raised Manhattanite, to the New York Post. He added, “New Yorkers don’t need Erewhon to teach us wellness. We’ve been doing bagels and coffee for decades—that’s our wellness.” Others were more pointed. Brooklyn UX designer Noelani Buonomo told the Post, “There’s nothing distinctly ‘New York’ about it. 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.”
Still, some luxury-loving newcomers may embrace Erewhon’s arrival. Lombardi, who runs a popular Instagram account highlighting independent eateries, conceded, “In this new New York City, I think it flies, but for the day-ones, not a chance.” For those who can afford the price of entry, Erewhon’s tonic bar will serve juices and smoothies in the mornings and early afternoons, offering a curated taste of the West Coast lifestyle in the heart of Manhattan. As Feed Me newsletter first reported, the opening date for Kith Ivy has yet to be announced, but a preview pop-up at Grand Central Station runs until September 10, 2025.
For non-members, there’s a sliver of hope. According to Alec Antoci, Erewhon’s Vice President of Brand and Marketing, customers within a designated delivery radius will be able to order Erewhon smoothies and juices via Postmates and Uber Eats. However, the logistics of delivering to a private club have yet to be fully explained, and it’s unclear how far the delivery radius will stretch—or how much the drinks will cost when ordered online.
What’s certain is that Erewhon’s New York outpost will be “Erewhon lite.” The full spectrum of the grocer’s controversial and eye-poppingly expensive products—like $14 hyper-oxygenated water bottles, $10 per pound green bell peppers, $30 for eight luxury ice cubes, and $40 sea moss shells—won’t be available in Manhattan, at least for now. Instead, New Yorkers will get a carefully selected menu of juices and smoothies, many of them celebrity-endorsed and already the subject of social media legend.
For Erewhon, this move is both a test and a statement. The brand is betting that the East Coast elite crave the same blend of wellness, exclusivity, and Instagrammable consumption that has made it a staple in Los Angeles. As CEO Tony Antoci told the Los Angeles Times in 2021, “We are looking at New York City; it’s definitely on the plate.” Now, that plan is finally coming to fruition, albeit behind velvet ropes and a hefty price tag.
For Kith, the partnership is a natural extension of its identity—a fusion of fashion, sport, and lifestyle that aims to capture the imagination (and wallets) of New York’s tastemakers. The result is a space that’s as much about social signaling as it is about wellness, where a $23 smoothie is less about nutrition and more about belonging to an exclusive club.
Whether Erewhon’s East Coast experiment will flourish or flop remains to be seen. For now, its arrival is a symbol of the city’s ever-evolving luxury landscape, where even a trip to the juice bar can be a statement of status. As New Yorkers weigh whether to splurge on a celebrity-endorsed smoothie or stick to their beloved bagels and coffee, one thing is clear: Erewhon’s Big Apple debut is anything but ordinary.
