Slight spoilers for YOU season 2 coming up. A central part of YOU Season 2 is the grocery store where Joe works. It’s called Anavrin, and it’s the epitome of everything that Joe absolutely despises about Los Angeles—and it’s not entirely fictional. It turns out that YOU‘s grocery store Anavrin is based on a real health food store!
Anavrin is peak stereotypical L.A.: it’s a health-conscious, upscale grocery store whose name is literally “nirvana” spelled backwards. It’s the type of place where yoga-loving, acupuncture-using, lifestyle blogging women would stop by to stock up on green juices and kombucha. Joe and the narrator of YOU hate this culture, and L.A. in general. As Joe puts it, California grocery stores aren’t simply “a place you buy carrots. They’re a pristine, non-GMO Disneyland. And king among these is Anavrin. Come for the spring lettuce mix, stay for the perfect life that could be yours if you just spend enough and quit gluten, you f*cking asshole.” Anavrin is especially important this season because Joe’s new object of obsession, Love, works at the store, and her parents own the place.
Bustle reports that Anavrin is likely based on a real store in L.A. called Erewhon—which is, yup, “nowhere” spelled backwards.
Source: Instagram
Erewhon is a lot like Anavrin in many ways—it’s an upscale health food store that features Instagram-worthy aisles of organic produce and raw, vegan, gluten-free prepared foods. Erewhon is famous for selling slightly surreal and very expensive items, such as a $24 macadamia nut cheese. In real life, the hip store is popular with celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian and Jessica Biel. It’s not just your average grocery store, it’s an institution.
Source: Instagram
There are several Erewhon locations in L.A. and the surrounding area, including Calabasas, Venice, and Santa Monica. So if you’re in the area, you could totally stop by to experience a real-life version of Joe’s workplace. You might hate it, like him, or who knows? You might just be converted into a fan.
