In brief
- Tesla opened a retro-style diner in Hollywood with EV-only parking, rooftop dining, and massive LED screens playing movie clips.
- While an Optimus robot serves popcorn, the kitchen is still human-run.
- While Tesla fans praised the experience, some locals raised concerns about traffic, noise, and the diner’s impact on the neighborhood.
Tesla’s long-awaited retro-style diner finally opened over the weekend in Los Angeles, and yes, there’s rollerskating waitstaff, rooftop seating, and a humanoid robot handing out popcorn. No, you can’t pay in Dogecoin, yet.
Located near the iconic Paramount Studios, the two-story fever dream sits atop a Supercharger hub with 80 EV-only parking spaces.
Part midcentury nostalgia trip, part Muskovite experiment, the diner has seating for 250 people and features two, drive-in-movie-sized LED screens that play curated 30-minute movie and TV show clips (meant to match the average Tesla charging time).
The menu offers comfort food classics rebranded for the megawatt crowd.
The diner also featured an Optimus, Tesla’s in-development humanoid robot, which was handing out popcorn to guests like an escapee from CES. Kitchen operations, however, were human-led under chef Eric Greenspan.
Musk first proposed opening a Tesla-themed restaurant in January 2018. Throngs of people have shown up, and there was a two-hour wait for lunch on Tuesday.
“It was a fantastic opening,” the diner’s manager, Bill Chait, told Decrypt.
The menu firmly adheres to the Americana tradition, featuring “Tesla Burger” cheeseburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken and waffles, fries, cinnamon rolls, and biscuits and gravy. There’s plenty of Tesla-branded merchandise, too.
The diner is cashless and currently does not accept any crypto despite Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s professed love of Dogecoin.
Reactions were mixed on prices, if not the food. “It was good but expensive,” said one diner. Another added, “We came last night and wanted to come back for more.”
The flashy venue straddles an industrial zone and a residential neighborhood, and, with all the hubbub plus the fact that the place is open 24/7, not all the locals were thrilled. “It doesn’t go with the neighborhood at all,” one passerby said. “It’s just more gentrification.”
The influx of traffic has caused headaches, with strip mall congestion and near-accidents as rubberneckers slow to take in the spectacle.
Two 66-foot-tall LED screens didn’t help, one of which now blocks views from nearby apartment balconies owned by South Park Group, Inc.
South Park Group did not respond to requests for comment by Decrypt.
Tesla cars beneath an LED screen. Image: Jason Nelson/Decrypt“A lot of our tenants have complained about the screens,” a groundskeeper admitted. “It would have been better if they only had the one screen so tenants could enjoy the ambience.”
Well, the traffic will surely die down as more locations open up—something Musk has suggested might occur.
“If our retro-futuristic diner turns out well, which I think it will, Tesla will establish these in major cities around the world, as well as at Supercharger sites on long-distance routes,” he wrote on X.
Because nothing says “sustainable future” like a Tesla Burger at 3 a.m. and a 66-foot screen utterly obliterating your view of the world.
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