In between Elon Musk’s ill-fated role as a senior adviser to the president, running SpaceX and owning X, the world’s richest person has taken on a new venture, opening the “retro futuristic” Tesla Diner in Los Angeles.
The business opened its doors in Hollywood at 4.20pm on Monday, offering a charging station, drive-in and a diner that serves, as Musk promised, “classic American fare like burgers and milkshakes” and wagyu beef chili, breakfast tacos and “iced nitro” matcha. Footage from the diner’s opening showed robots serving popcorn, burgers served in Cybertruck-shaped boxes and episodes of Star Trek playing on the restaurant’s large outdoor screens.
Tesla fans lined up outside the diner for hours before its opening, with some traveling in from across southern California to attend and pulling up in Cybertrucks and Model Ys.
“I’m hoping the robot will be here. I really want to test out the bathroom, because we’ve seen cool pictures of the bathroom. But the chicken waffle sandwich is supposed to be good; the fries are supposed to be good,” one attendee told NBC News.
Musk first announced the idea in 2018, pitching an “old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA”. Construction on the two-story silver structure began in 2023, and was completed this year as Musk took an increasingly visible role in the Trump administration leading the so-called “department of government efficiency”, and overseeing mass layoffs in federal government.
The site’s first level is about 3,800 sq ft as well as an outdoor seating space and food prep area spread across 5,500 sq ft, according to Fox 11. Tesla owners can order food from their vehicles, according to the diner’s website, and Musk has said the business will be open 24 hours a day to Tesla owners and non-owners alike.
The project has not been without controversy. Earlier this year two Los Angeles restaurateurs, the couple Walter Manzke and Margarita Manzke, were heavily criticized after speaking in support of the diner and Musk to the New York Times.
