\n<\/p>\n
\u201cElon definitely snapped,\u201d Jamel Bullock says, conveying a compliment of high praise, a cultural colloquialism. A Silverlake-based design creative who works in fashion and tech, Bullock bought a Model 3 only a couple of months ago, but considers it \u201cthe best car of all time .\u201d Overall, he says the diner experience is what LA needs and will make for a great date spot. \u201cNow, if it stays this loud, it might suck for them,\u201d he says, pointing to the apartment complex across the street, where people gawk at the spectacle from their balconies. \u201cRegardless of how you feel about it, though, it\u2019s just cool overall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Umut, who came with a friend and asked that his last name not be printed for privacy concerns, heard about the opening on X Tuesday morning. He bought a Model Y a year ago and says he has endured some backlash for it since Musk\u2019s public favor has waned. \u201cI see a lot of people with those stickers saying I used to drive this before Elon went crazy. I\u2019m not like that. I have my own opinion but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right to do that. It does feel a little weird to be honest. My friends make jokes about it sometimes\u2014\u2018Oh, you\u2019re driving a Tesla.\u2019 It\u2019s a car at the end of the day. It serves me well.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n PHOTOGRAPH: ETHAN NOAH ROY<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n PHOTOGRAPH: ETHAN NOAH ROY<\/span><\/p>\n So, what\u2019s to love about the Tesla diner? Outside of the offering of superchargers, there doesn\u2019t seem to be much replay value. Many people complain of long wait times\u2014my own food takes 40 minutes to arrive\u2014and though it\u2019s good, it isn\u2019t anything you can\u2019t get at other diners, like Mel\u2019s or Clark Street, across the city.<\/p>\n The sun finally comes out as Veerasingam waits for her food on the deck. \u201cThis is a MAGA diner. Why do I say that\u2014literally you have a menu telling you how everything is made,\u201d she says, and I don\u2019t know exactly what she means. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know cheese is not real. Did you see that?\u201d On the menu, Greenspan has detailed many of the ingredients he uses, most of them sourced from local farmers and brands, including Brandt beef (\u201cfrom the Holstein cows of Brandt Cattle of Calipatria, CA\u201d), flour tortillas (\u201cmade with heritage organic drought resistant wheat\u201d), Bakers Bacon (\u201cheritage bred pork and natural apple wood smoke\u201d), and a kind of cheese called New School American (\u201cmade from aged cheddar, real cream and real butter without phosphates, starches, acids or fillers\u201d).<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n PHOTOGRAPH: ETHAN NOAH ROY<\/span><\/p>\n Since the late 80s, Veerasingam suggests, too many artificial preservatives have been added to food. \u201cIt\u2019s all fake,\u201d she says. Returning to her earlier point, about the limitations of being on earth, she says there\u2019s more out there.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you’re exploring the unknown, it’s not about what anybody else has. Nobody knows. It\u2019s a different kind of competition. It’s not about money. Money cannot get you to Mars. It\u2019s beyond money\u201d<\/p>\n But won\u2019t you need money to get there, I ask<\/p>\n \u201cYes, but it\u2019s not going to be the be all and end all,\u201d she says. \u201cWhy do we need approval to go to Mars? Cut the shit, all the regulation shit. We don\u2019t want politics but politics has unfortunately come to us,\u201d she says. \u201cNormal people, we just want to get on with our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Before we depart, I ask her what she thinks is at the edge, what she hopes to find at the final frontier? \u201cNothing,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s like a cycle. We will start at the beginning. It\u2019s like the snake that eats itself. And that\u2019s the meaning of life. But first we have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cElon definitely snapped,\u201d Jamel Bullock says, conveying a compliment of high praise, a cultural colloquialism. A Silverlake-based design creative who works in fashion and tech, Bullock bought a Model 3 only a couple of months ago, but considers it \u201cthe best car of all time .\u201d Overall, he says the diner experience is what LA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[131,5468,5462,5463,5466,5464,5465,1381,5467],"class_list":{"0":"post-11940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-day","9":"tag-diner","10":"tag-hotdog","11":"tag-humanoid","12":"tag-popcorn","13":"tag-robot","14":"tag-serving","15":"tag-tesla","16":"tag-wireds"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}