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Every major city claims to have the ‘worst dating scene,’ but if you live in Los Angeles, the drag of being single might as well be alleviated over a $25 Strawberry Glaze Erewhon smoothie.
Desperate LA singles, fed up with dating apps, are now scouring the aisles of the luxe grocery chain for their happily-ever-after — with locals dubbing it “better than dating apps”.
With $52 candles and $18 jarred macaroons, the culty LA grocer Erewhon promises luxury, wellness, health, celebrities and TikTok content creators combing the aisles, and nowadays possibly even a partner who falls within a certain tax bracket.
Holly Solem is an LA writer and content creator who found love in Erewhon’s pricey aisles, she tells The California Post. She regularly films her social media series Manthropology at the store — where she poses a series of advice questions to unsuspecting male shoppers.
“I was doing interviews [at Erewhon], and ran up to him and his friend and asked, ‘Can I interview you guys?’ I was not in the headspace for romance, I actually quit dating,” Solem recalled to The Post. “A couple weeks later, I got a DM from him, and he asked me to dinner … It wasn’t until our second date where our guards dropped, and we just really liked each other.”
Solem now says she credits America’s buzziest grocery store as being “better than dating apps.”
“Every single person there is hoping they will meet someone fun and interesting. I think a girl going there to get a smoothie will be excited to run into a man who has a job,” although Solem jokes to The Post that no one in LA actually works proper.
Eyeing attractive people and feeling the flirty vibes while spending $200 on groceries doesn’t stop there. Between the nutrient-fueled, infamous smoothies, the steaming hot bar, or the $19 single premium Elly Amai Tochiaika strawberries, Erewhon might’ve curated its own food group of aphrodisiacs.
“The energy there is [that] everyone is checking each other out,” entertainment host Drea Renee, who regularly shops at and finds amusement in Erewhon being part of her bougie LA lifestyle, told The Post.
“There are just vibes everywhere. You can’t just go get an apple. You have to walk down the runway, everyone’s looking at you,” she added.
This isn’t all in Renee’s head; she admits to doing it, too. “I look, and I’m like, ‘Where are those shoes from? What are you wearing? What car did you get out of?’”
It’s the sort of place that only want-to-be-seen (and get hit on) Angelenos, except for some eager tourists, truly understand.
In fact, Erewhon was the reason Renee’s Texas-based ex broke up with her, thinking her “lifestyle was too much for him because I spent like $90 on lunch. He was so confused by it. He left a couple [of] days later, and never spoke to me again.”
But even that’s not enough to turn the host off from her go-to spot. “It is part of my life, and I don’t want to feel any shame about it.”
And from the sounds of it, a quick stroll around the store might bring Renee right to her next beau.
Kiara Upshur is all too familiar with the Erewhon dating scene, as she met her now ex-boyfriend, who was an employee at the time, at Silverlake Erewhon.
Caught up in vlogging while strolling through the grocer with her visiting friend, the 24-year-old didn’t initially give the cute employee a second thought until her friend mentioned how he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
When Upshur realized he was cute, she strutted over to him and boldly said, “Hey, I think you’re cute and I think we could be cute together,” which she says is a normal Erewhon interaction.
According to Upshur, who works in digital marketing, everyone in and around the high-end store is more approachable than in other LA grocery stores. “There’s always someone going to try the Hailey Bieber smoothie. You can always talk to people and say, ‘How do you like it?’ I don’t know if I would strike up a conversation as easily as somewhere like Target,” she explained.
Whether you’re at the Grove, Venice, Studio City, or Beverly Hills location, people are hanging out outside, the same way locals in other cities hang out at a bar. Except in LA, a bar is clearly not where to meet people, thanks to the healthy, or at least California sober, lifestyle.
Something as simple as grabbing lunch at the Beverly Grove Erewhon (deemed the flirtiest location by the shoppers The Post spoke to) led 24-year-old model Angelina Gault to a romantic hookup.
“I remember I got my favorite smoothie, the turmeric crush, and something from the hot bar,” they recalled to The Post. “I see this guy, he looks like a young Keanu Reeves and he’s looking at me like he can’t take his eyes off me.”
Gault emphasized that they’re used to people checking them out — but this Erewhon interaction was different. The model liked the hot stranger’s look, and his gaze was intent, “it really shifted something in me.”
That same night, the duo had a one-and-done date since he was leaving for London the next day to attend school for his master’s degree.
“It was very romantic. We chatted about books and music because we basically have the same taste in everything. He came from a wealthy art family, and my family is an artist family. We made out a little bit in his car, he dropped me off, and then we literally never spoke again,” she told The Post.
