A tiny organic food store in the East Village is drawing hundreds of customers with what’s perhaps the closest thing you can find to a viral smoothie that’s only available in Los Angeles County — though the local beverage is simpler and significantly cheaper than its buzzy West Coast counterpart.
A steady stream of customers is lining up at East Village Organic, at the corner of First Avenue and Saint Marks Place, for an order that’s barely more than half the cost of the popular “Coconut Cloud Smoothie” from Erewhon Market, an upscale L.A.-based grocery chain responsible for colorful concoctions that have taken social media by storm.
Some are even posting their pilgrimages to the Lower Manhattan spot on TikTok — including reviews of the “Coco Cloud” smoothie by those who said they had also tried the Erewhon recipe.
Erewhon, an anagram of “nowhere,” operates just 10 locations, all in L.A. County. Its geographic exclusivity, coupled with the sheer volume of celebrities routinely spotted at the pricey supermarket, has cemented its status as a must-visit destination for those in town.
In addition to its inventory of niche, organic products and prepared items — which range from a $15 bone broth tonic to a $21 spicy sushi sandwich — Erewhon has also collaborated with model Hailey Bieber and singer Sabrina Carpenter on some of its made-to-order smoothies.
But not everyone can, or even wants to, hop on a plane to be in on the internet-famous trend.
East Village Organic, at First Avenue and Saint Marks Place, is offering an order that’s nearly half the cost of the popular “Coconut Cloud Smoothie” at buzzy Los Angeles grocery chain Erewhon.
Giulia Heyward / Gothamist
Enter spots like East Village Organic, for East Coasters desperate to try the “Erewhon experience” without switching time zones. (Some social media users are also touting Happier Grocery on Canal and Wooster streets as the “Erewhon of New York City” because of its vast inventory of pricey organic products.)
East Village Organic is selling what some customers describe as a near-replica, or “dupe,” of Erewhon’s $18 Coconut Cloud Smoothie — even though the local store’s owner stresses they’re different drinks.
According to the L.A. supermarket’s website, its blue-and-white 20-ounce beverage consists of organic almond milk, pineapple, banana, avocado, almond butter, coconut cream, vanilla collagen and an extract of spirulina known as “blue majik.”
East Village Organic’s drink costs $11 and, per the store’s menu, consists of coconut water, coconut yogurt, mango, coconut meat, pineapple and blue spirulina, a nutritious algae product.
A Gothamist reporter visited the store to try out the smoothie. While it was admittedly very aesthetic, the cold and slush-like consistency of the smoothie had an almost treacly aftertaste and not much flavor beyond that. But it did feel like the kind of drink one could mindlessly sip while perusing the aisles at Erewhon for plant-based cave-aged truffle brie ($18.99 for 5.6 ounces) and compostable zip seal sandwich bags ($10.99 for 50 small bags).
Ali Fardos, East Village Organic’s owner, said the Coco Cloud smoothie was added to the menu about three months ago, and that his store has been around since 2015.
The Coco Cloud smoothie currently goes for $11.
Giulia Heyward / Gothamist
Within the last few weeks, social media posts show customers heading to the store at all hours for the order. Store manager Celeste Almeida said there have been hundreds of smoothie orders each week and she’s “constantly” seen people snap photos of their Coco Cloud smoothies.
Fardos said his vision for the drink was a smoothie that resembled a piña colada, but with a blue hue. It’s similar to another smoothie on East Village Organic’s menu called “the Green Machine,” which also has a strong coconut taste, he told Gothamist.
Fardos also said he was aware of people comparing the smoothie to the similar order at Erewhon, though both he and Almeida said they had yet to try the L.A. chain’s Coconut Cloud Smoothie.
“What we have in the smoothie, Erewhon doesn’t have,” he said. “Erewhon has all these other things in it. There’s collagen, avocados and almond butter — it’s a $20 drink! New Yorkers don’t have that.”
The price of the Coco Cloud smoothie will at most go up by another 50 cents next year due to rising business expenses in New York City, Fardos said. He added that he had no interest in selling a $20 smoothie anytime soon.