Is Erewhon coming to Philly? Even the bougie Los Angeles-based grocer isn’t sure
Erewhon posted an Instagram slideshow Tuesday morning with a map of Philly captioned, "The Taste of Erewhon in Your City. Coming soon." It doesn't mean what you think.
Philadelphia diehards, rest easy: Your city has been marked safe from becoming Los Angeles-ified, at least for today. Erewhon is not coming here.
The luxury L.A.-based grocer known for hawking celebrity-inspired smoothies and impossibly expensive produce sent followers into a tizzy when it posted a cryptic Instagram slideshow Tuesday morning.
“The Taste of Erewhon in Your City. Coming soon,” Erewhon captioned a slideshow of Google map screenshots of 19 cities, including Philly, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, and Nashville.
Erewhon became a cultural phenomenon in 2022, when its in-store smoothie counters began collaborating with celebrities like Hailey Bieber and Pennsylvania’s own Sabrina Carpenter on bright concoctions that cost between $13 and a whopping $23. Each is blended with buzzy homeopathic ingredients — like collagen, ashwagandha, or cow colostrum — and promises to make your skin better or your gut healthier.
Naturally, some Philadelphians immediately took to the comments to bemoan the thought of $19 strawberries, beef-organ tonics, and lines of up-and-coming wellness influencers invading the city. Philadelphia has the second-greatest poverty rate out of the 10 most populous U.S cities, and its residents are deeply defensive of our underdog food scene and the local markets that support it.
“Stay out of Philly please ❤️," wrote one Instagram user. Others piled on.
“Philly for why LMAOO,” read another comment.
Luckily for the haters, Erewhon is not opening a location in Philadelphia. The misinterpreted Instagram post was meant to boost the grocery store’s nationwide shipping program. Hours later, Erewhon updated the Instagram caption to read, “A Taste of Erewhon Shipping to Your City.”
Erewhon acolytes were bamboozled by the sneaky switch-up.
“Did we just get punked?” One follower asked. “DON’T PRETEND THAT FIRST CAPTION DIDN’T HAPPEN,” wrote another. Another simply said: “You’ll rue this day.”
Official clarity on the post proved elusive until Thursday afternoon, when Erewhon explained via Instagram that all the fanfare was in service of teasing its do-it-your-self smoothie kits, available for nationwide shipping starting Oct. 3. The kits will include ingredients to the viral Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie and four to-go Erewhon-branded cups. Their price is yet to be announced.
Erewhon started shipping other store merchandise and wellness products nationally in 2023, and the brand has begun to experiment with satellite locations of its viral tonic bar on the East Coast. In September, Erewhon opened a smoothie counter inside the private New York City members’ club Kith Ivy, where memberships cost $7,000 a month. The general population, meanwhile, can order smoothies through delivery apps like Postmates.
Where did Erewhon come from, and is there anything like it in Philly?
Founded in 1969 in Boston as a run-of-the-mill bulk grocer and health food store, Erewhon found success after relocating to Los Angeles, where the grocery chain currently operates 10 locations in the city and its surrounding suburbs.
Now, Erewhon has morphed into an aspirational lifestyle brand, inspiring dozens of smaller competitors to create “dupes,” or inexpensive smoothie knockoffs.
In Philadelphia, the heir apparent to Erewhon’s smoothie craze is Riverwards Produce. For only $9, the beverage counter inside its Old City location serves smoothies with high-end touches, like toothpick-etched flowers, parfait-esque dollops of coconut cream, and cups drizzled with vibrant housemade spirulina syrups.
It might not be wise to write a Philadelphia brick-and-mortar entirely out of Erewhon’s plan yet. The grocer is backed by Stripes, the same venture-capital firm that funded PopUp Bagels and Levain Bakery’s Philly expansions.
Local food influencer Jacob Fink (@jacobdoesphilly) already has. Fink told The Inquirer that he’s decided whatever Erewhon has planned for Philly isn’t for him.
“If I didn’t make food videos for a living, I can’t imagine I’d even go once” to an actual satellite location like the one in New York, Fink said. “And if it’s just shipped smoothie kits … that just feels dumb.”