Erewhon Has Been In NYC For a Year Without a Single Shelf
Erewhon has been selling smoothies in Manhattan since fall 2025 without stocking a single product on a New York shelf, and the New York Post's sources describe its next location as another smoothie bar.
For brands, that changes what getting into Erewhon means on the East Coast. In Los Angeles, Erewhon runs full grocery stores with aisles to earn a place in, and it also charges brands for slots in its smoothie recipes. In New York, where its only physical footprint so far is a drink menu, those ingredient slots are the closest thing Erewhon has to shelf space.
On Friday, October 23, Snaxshot's Andrea Hernández shared a sighting of an Erewhon sign at 644 Broadway, at Bleecker Street in NoHo, an address occupied by Kith. Eater New York reports the signage was covered up several hours later. Chandler Forsythe, director of operations and community at the NoHo Business Improvement District, told the New York Post he had heard from local property sources that the space would become an Erewhon smoothie pop-up and cafe on a long-term lease. The Post reported it would replace the PlantShed cafe and florist inside Kith's women's boutique, though Eater pointed to the newsletter Caper, which called the PlantShed takeover report fake. Neither Kith nor Erewhon responded to the Post's requests for comment.
If the reports hold, the setup would echo how Kith itself got started. Ronnie Fieg opened Kith's first location in November 2011 inside a clothing store called Atrium, at the same 644 Broadway address, according to Complex. Fifteen years later, the shop-in-a-shop at that address could be Erewhon's.
Erewhon's existing New York outpost is a drinks-only "tonic bar" inside Kith Ivy, Fieg's padel and members' club in the West Village. Only members can order in person, and Eater puts their initiation fee at $45,000 with $10,000 in annual dues. The initiation fee alone would cover about 2,250 smoothies at the roughly $20 price the Post cites. Everyone else orders through Postmates or Uber Eats within about a mile of the club.
SOURCE: Kith Ivy Instagram
Erewhon sells placement on its drink menu. Vito Antoci, the company's EVP, told Marketing Brew last December that each celebrity smoothie recipe carries up to five brands that pay to be in the ingredient list. Brands that create one of the 16 branded membership drinks Erewhon releases each year fund the drink themselves, according to Antoci, and they must already sell in Erewhon stores to qualify. Glossy, citing an unnamed source, reported that Erewhon charges about $40,000 for smoothie participation.
Many of the partners on those membership drinks sell no food at all. Salt & Stone, a body-care brand, told Marketing Brew its October 2024 smoothie drove more than 4 million impressions, and the showerhead brand Jolie said it sold more than 15,000 of its drinks in April 2025. Boka, the toothpaste brand behind a late-2025 membership smoothie, called the arrangement "a pay-to-play situation."
Plant-based products have come through the same door. Erewhon placed the very first order for GT's kombucha in 1995, according to CNBC, and in May 2024 GT's dairy-free COCOYO coconut yogurt was a hero ingredient in Kendall Jenner's Peaches & Cream smoothie. All four smoothies on the Kith Ivy delivery menu at launch were built on coconut cream, almond milk, or oat milk, even though three of the four also carried collagen. Eater notes that the copycat smoothies that showed up in 2024 at places like the East Village's Organic were swirled with plant-based cream too.
The branded drink has spread well past Erewhon. Glossy reported in October 2025 that Dove, Brooklinen, Heinz Ketchup, and Vacation sunscreen had all created branded beverages, and that SunLife Organics runs smoothie collaborations of its own. Erewhon also won't have the $20 smoothie to itself in Manhattan. Eater reports that Los Angeles restaurateur Jeremy Fall, whose Drugstore pop-up found New Yorkers paying $20 for smoothies in the Hamptons, is opening a permanent West Village cafe in November.
Chris Ribeiro, an assistant professor of marketing at Rutgers Business School, told Inc. that a $20 smoothie can drive far more frequent foot traffic than a $200 hoodie and gives shoppers a reason to visit Kith every week. He also warned that if New Yorkers can only get Erewhon through delivery for too long, "the buzz fades."
Erewhon's own partner rules tie drinks to shelves. In Los Angeles, a brand has to be on Erewhon's shelves before it can create a membership drink, and Antoci told Marketing Brew that each year's lineup is decided the October before. A public NoHo bar running a menu like Kith Ivy's would put Erewhon's collab drinks in front of Manhattan foot traffic, in a city with no Erewhon shelf to qualify on. Founders weighing an Erewhon pitch should watch whether that rule travels with the blender once the sign at 644 Broadway goes back up.
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