MORE A host greets guests and manages the line outside Tesla Diner during its second day of operations following a 13-hour shift on opening day. Photo by Stella Merims. They paved a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor and put up a parking lot. In this case, the lot on Santa Monica Boulevard has 80 electric vehicle charging stations, two giant movie screens showing clips from The Twilight Zone, and a 24-hour restaurant that serves club sandwiches, smash burgers, and tuna melts. The Tesla Diner opened in Hollywood last week, generating headlines, spurring protests, and attracting long lines of Tesla super-fans, curious spectators, and content creators armed with selfie sticks and camera rigs. It’s essentially a brand activation for a company adept at surveillance, and documenting your experience is, fittingly, a big part of the experience. The spot, owned by Elon Musk, is the first in what he hopes will become a global chain of “retro-futuristic” diners, he announced on X, the platform he also owns. But the restaurant more closely resembles a Las Vegas casino than anywhere that might traditionally serve you a cup of coffee and a slice of pie (though the Tesla Diner does offer both items; a slice of apple pie a la mode – or the gluten-free pecan option – will set you back $12). The restaurant is helmed by L.A. chef and grilled cheese impresario Eric Greenspan, who outfitted the menu with all-day breakfast options from cinnamon rolls to avocado toast. It’s housed in a metallic two-story tower that looks a bit like a flying saucer hit a bunch of Cybertrucks. Sleek booths and counter seating line the ground floor, where the sterile vibe is akin to an airport terminal. Additional tables are on the rooftop deck — or in Tesla Diner parlance, the “sky pad” — where a human-sized robot dishes out popcorn. The robot known as Optimus waves hello to a crowd waiting for popcorn and photo opportunities. Photo by Stella Merims. The robot, dubbed Optimus, has sensors that seem to detect when a camera is pointed in its direction; it poses for photos by waving or flashing the peace sign. One of the two movie screens in the parking lot blocks the view from the apartment windows and balconies behind it on Orange Street. Photo by Stella Merims. Women in Tesla Diner t-shirts roller skate around the parking lot with empty metal trays. Photo by Stella Merims. This spectacle has been in the works for years, as the next-door neighbors who have endured loud construction, bright lights, and now, enormous movie screens blocking their views, can attest. But the Tesla Diner has opened to the public at a time when Musk has become more polarizing than ever, fresh off his four-month stint as a senior advisor in the Trump administration. His antics, which included firing tens of thousands of federal government workers, prompted some Tesla owners to sell their vehicles in protest; others opted for bumper stickers that read: “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.” It’s a sentiment that resonates with at least some of the conflicted Tesla owners who showed up to his flashy new diner. “I’ve had it for a while,” says customer Mark Thau, speaking about his Tesla. “I did buy it before [Musk joined the White House]. It’s unfortunate. … Sometimes I’m a little sorry about it.” Thau was waiting outside the diner with his two dogs for his food order — a burger, fries, a tuna melt, and chicken nuggets — last Tuesday afternoon. The restaurant had only been open at that point for 24 hours, but it was already his second time there that day. The first time, he’d driven over to charge his car — something he says had previously been difficult to do in the neighborhood — and order food directly from his Tesla’s touchscreen. It wasn’t until he got home that he realized “they gave me the wrong order,” and walked back over, in flip-flops. Mark Thau lives in the neighborhood and stopped by to charge his car and order food. Photo by Stella Merims. Despite his misgivings, he sees the place as a convenient charging station in an “undercharged” area. “The Democrats suck, the Republicans suck, and [Musk] sucks, too,” Thau says. But “at the end of the day, I like to eat, and my car needs electricity.” Before it became a hub this month for electric vehicle meet-ups, YouTube tours, and political protests, the property was the home of a Shakey’s Pizza since 1964. It was the kind of family-style restaurant that put your name on the marquee when it was your birthday, and where the L.A. writer Charles Bukowski famously used to hang out. “A place like that is so important because there's very few, if any, food service places in this town anymore where you can just tell a bunch of people that you don't know very well, ‘Hey, we're going to be there at 9 o'clock and everyone can go up to the counter and order for themselves,’” says L.A. historian and preservationist Kim Cooper about the old Shakey’s experience. “People who want to drink can drink. People who are poor can nurse some French fries or what have you, and it’s very egalitarian.” If Shakey’s was an egalitarian thing of the past, then the Tesla Diner might be its elitist future: A place where Tesla drivers reportedly get their food delivered faster and also enjoy exclusive access to the street-level bathrooms, which require a Tesla app to unlock. Cooper, who runs an offbeat L.A. tour company called Esotouric, was among the first to break the news about the Tesla Diner when she dug up and tweeted its zoning application with the Los Angeles City Planning Department, back in May 2022. In a post on Twitter — now Musk’s X — she called it a loss for Route 66, the historic highway that followed the path of Santa Monica Boulevard. Still, Cooper is open-minded about the Tesla Diner potentially serving as a new kind of hub for local motorheads — ones whose motors are electric. “It’s part of this California car culture continuum,” she says, placing it in the context of the cruise nights and low-rider meetups at actual historic diners around town. “I don't know if it's going to be part of history moving forward, but let's see how long it lasts and if the sandwiches are good.” Cooper, at least, won’t be the judge of that. “ I can't really see us spending money there because of what the owner has done to the democracy that we love,” she says. “But I guess we'll look at it.” Hey! Did you enjoy this piece? We can’t do it without you. We are member-supported, so your donation is critical to KCRW's music programming, news reporting, and cultural coverage. Help support the DJs, journalists, and staff of the station you love. Here's how: