\n<\/p>\n
It was just before lunchtime on its third day of operation, and the line outside Elon Musk\u2019s new Tesla Diner in Hollywood already stretched to nearly 100 people.<\/p>\n
The restaurant has been billed as a \u201cretro-futuristic\u201d drive-in where you can grab a high-end burger and watch classic films on giant screens, all while charging your Tesla.<\/p>\n
After months of buildup and controversy, the diner had suddenly opened on Monday, at 4.20pm, the kind of stoner boy joke that Musk is well-known for. Hundreds of fans lined up to try burgers in Cybertruck-shaped boxes, or take photos of the Optimus robot serving popcorn on the roof deck of the gleaming circular diner.<\/p>\n
But that was for the grand opening. Less than 48 hours later, when we visited for lunch, the Tesla Diner experience was less a futuristic fantasy than a case study in how to fail with impunity. Many parts of the experience were breaking down, the food was mediocre, yet the fans were still cheerfully lining up to buy merch.<\/p>\n
The line to get into the diner on Wednesday morning was so long, an employee told us, in part because of technical problems. The app that allowed Tesla drivers to order from their cars was glitching, so the diner was \u201cprioritizing\u201d Tesla owners who had to come inside to order instead. This meant that non-Tesla owners in the walk-up line might need to wait as long as two to three hours before we got our food.<\/p>\n
<\/span>A robot serves popcorn at the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles, California, on Tuesday. <\/span> Photograph: Allison Dinner\/EPA<\/p>\n I expected at least a few people to leave the walk-up line immediately, but the only ones who did were two families of Tesla owners who went back to order from within their cars. Even if the app didn\u2019t work for them, they would still get their food faster. The hierarchy was clear: things were broken for everyone, but owners of Musk products had to suffer slightly less.<\/p>\n The rest of us kept waiting in the hot sun. \u201cRetro-futurism\u201d, in this case, seemed to mean gorgeous, Tesla-inspired, mid-century modern architecture coupled with wait times that would shutter an ordinary McDonald\u2019s. An episode of Star Trek was playing on the giant drive-in movie screens, but the best entertainment available was watching tricked-out Cybertrucks arrive and depart. I counted at least six when I arrived, and more kept appearing: a neon orange Cybertruck with Texas plates, another floating on giant custom rims. I did not spot a single anti-Musk protester, though social media posts were advertising protests outside the diner later in the week.<\/p>\n Musk\u2019s special projects have often unfolded with a degree of chaos. Most recently, his attempt to dismantle the large parts of the US government ended with him feuding with the president he had spent nearly $300m to elect.<\/p>\n Serving high-end burgers to Tesla fans while they charge their electric cars should be much easier than launching space rockets, developing brain implants or running a social media platform that is not overrun with hate speech and harassment. And Musk\u2019s diner operation partners, the Los Angeles chef Eric Greenspan, who advised Mr Beast Burger, and restaurateur Bill Chait, of R\u00e9publique and Tartine Bakery, have impressive food industry credentials.<\/p>\n But the billionaire CEO tends to make big promises and not quite fulfill them. That appeared to be true even for a tiny burger joint.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to own a Tesla to order a meal at the diner, and its appeal clearly reached far beyond Tesla drivers. There were many people in the walk-up line on Wednesday with babies and small children, some of whom were particularly excited to be visiting the Tesla Diner after seeing videos about it online. While we all waited and waited, employees in branded T-shirts brought us glasses of water and paper menus.<\/p>\n Jake Hook, who runs a Los Angeles-focused \u201cDiner Theory\u201d social media account, had described the Tesla Diner menu to me as \u201call over the place\u201d, with a combination of \u201cvery fast food shlocky\u201d items combined with sandwiches made with \u201cbread from Tartine\u201d, the luxury California bakery. The diner also offers a mix of \u201cown the libs\u201d and \u201cwe are the libs\u201d options: on the one hand, \u201cEpic Bacon\u201d, four strips of bacon are served with sauces as a meatfluencer alternative to french fries, and on the other, avocado toast and matcha lattes. There was a kale salad served in a cardboard Cybertruck: welcome to southern California.<\/p>\n <\/span>Food outside of Elon Musk\u2019s new Tesla Diner.<\/span> Photograph: Lois Beckett\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cDiners are kind of a reflection of the community, and it doesn\u2019t seem to really be that,\u201d Hook told me over the phone. \u201cIt\u2019s like a diner-themed restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n An employee gave the Wednesday walk-up line another update: they didn\u2019t have chicken, waffles or milkshakes, or any of the \u201ccharged sodas\u201d, which came with boba and maraschino cherries and extra caffeine.<\/p>\n \u201cIt gets better and better,\u201d sighed a man behind me.<\/p>\n Josh Bates and his son Phoenix were in town for the day from Orange county, where they lived. \u201cWe are big Musk fans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Phoenix, age 10, had been excited to visit the diner. \u201cI never seen Elon Musk open a restaurant, so I just wanted to come here and see how the food is,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n But after waiting in line for 20 minutes and not getting much closer to ordering, Bates decided it was time to find somewhere else for lunch. \u201cIt\u2019s the grand opening \u2013 things happen,\u201d the father said. \u201cIt is what it is. They\u2019re doing the best they can.\u201d<\/p>\n Bates wasn\u2019t the only Musk fan with this attitude. Ivan Daza, 36, who lived in Los Angeles, later told me that he had waited two hours the day before, only to be told around 6 or 7pm that the Tesla Diner\u2019s kitchen was closed. He had brought his eight-year-old daughter back the next day to try again. She had seen the Tesla Diner on YouTube and was especially excited to see the Optimus robot. But it turned out that Optimus was not in operation.<\/p>\n Daza said he was surprised by the various problems the kitchen seemed to be having \u2013 he thought they would have a \u201cplan B\u201d. But he was pleased the diner offered an \u201cexperience\u201d.<\/p>\n The prices, though expensive, weren\u2019t that bad for Los Angeles. The burger was $13.50, without french fries. Later, as Daza ate the meal that had taken him two days to get, he grinned: \u201cDelicious.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Food at the Tesla Diner comes in boxes shaped like cybertrucks.<\/span> Photograph: Allison Dinner\/EPA<\/p>\n The interior design was certainly closer to Disneyland than In-N-Out: all sleek and shining chrome, futuristic 1950s white chairs and tables, and beautifully designed lighting. The curved staircase up to the Skypad was decorated with robots in display cases on the wall. Inside a curved chrome window was what looked like a pretty ordinary, low-tech restaurant kitchen.<\/p>\n I had waited in line for a full hour before I could place my order. When I finally got to the register, I asked an employee to remind me what on the menu was actually available. She said I needed to check the screen in front of me \u2013 they had whatever was there. It turned out, contrary to what I had been told, that I could order both chicken and waffles.<\/p>\n After the long wait outside, my food arrived in about 10 minutes \u2013 much less than the three-hour wait I feared, but absurdly long for any fast-casual restaurant. A waffle, branded with the Tesla lightning bolt, was cold. The fried chicken had a tasty coating but was also cold. The heap of kale and tomatoes was only partially dressed with an odd dill-flavored dressing. The generic-brand cola tasted cheap and was served with a woke bamboo straw. But the food did come in elaborate Cybertruck boxes \u2013 and they were, to be honest, delightful.<\/p>\n While locals seemed to be forgiving of the new diner\u2019s glitches, some tourists were less impressed. Rick Yin, 32, who was visiting Los Angeles from China with his mother, had stopped by the diner on their way to the airport to \u201cgrab a quick lunch\u201d that had turned out not to be quick at all. Yin had also been excited to see the Optimus robot in action, and had hoped the diner would be \u201cmore hi-tech\u201d. What he had found was \u201ca regular restaurant\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all right,\u201d he said, while still waiting for his food. After eating, he said he liked the Cybertruck boxes: \u201cThat\u2019s the only thing that\u2019s worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n I took my meal upstairs , to the Skypad, an open-air balcony with a view of the charging Teslas. The Twilight Zone was now playing on two giant screens. I sat down next to a steady line of people buying Tesla Diner merch: a $95 retro diner hoodie, $65 Tesla salt and pepper shakers, a $175 \u201clevitating Cybertruck\u201d figurine.<\/p>\n There was a large popcorn machine in front of me, which seemed to be where Optimus had been serving snacks on opening night. Musk had been posting on X earlier in the morning that \u201cOptimus will bring the food to your car next year\u201d and suggesting the robot might be dressed in a \u201ccute\u201d retro outfit.<\/p>\n In reality, Optimus was nowhere in sight. The robot was \u201cout today\u201d, an employee told me later, as if the pricey piece of machinery were a human celebrity with a busy schedule. \u201cMaybe tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>General view of Elon Musk\u2019s new Tesla Diner in Hollywood, California. <\/span> Photograph: AaronP\/Bauer-Griffin\/GC Images<\/p>\n \u201cIs it possible to get some popcorn regardless of the robot?\u201d a woman asked.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s probably old popcorn,\u201d an employee told her regretfully.<\/p>\n A different employee warned me that I could not walk down the same staircase I had taken up to the Skypad because it was too crowded and that \u201ceveryone\u2019s colliding with each other and trays and milkshakes\u201d. I would have to go down another way: a bland flight of stairs without any hi-tech decoration.<\/p>\n During a Tesla earnings call on Wednesday, as the company disclosed declining revenue and profits, Musk highlighted his new burger palace as a success: \u201cDiners don\u2019t typically get headline news around Earth,\u201d he bragged. He also called the diner \u201ca shiny beacon of hope in an otherwise sort-of bleak urban landscape\u201d. (It is located on Santa Monica Boulevard, in a neighborhood full of high-end art galleries.)<\/p>\n I\u2019d had plenty of time in the diner line to think about \u201cretro-futuristic\u201d experiences, and how good a description that was, not so much for this very ordinary diner, but for the rightwing political project that Musk had joined. We were now moving into a future that offered tank-like electric cars and on-demand drone deliveries, and also a resurgence of measles outbreaks and women dying from preventable pregnancy-related complications.<\/p>\n But continuing to function in the United States right now requires being very good at compartmentalization. I tucked away the cardboard Cybertruck lids to show my co-workers, threw away the Tesla waffles, and went on with my day. Nothing works properly here any more, but hey, it\u2019s an experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was just before lunchtime on its third day of operation, and the line outside Elon Musk\u2019s new Tesla Diner in Hollywood already stretched to nearly 100 people. The restaurant has been billed as a \u201cretro-futuristic\u201d drive-in where you can grab a high-end burger and watch classic films on giant screens, all while charging your<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[3422,5468,91,659,830,3421,1371,2908,3038],"class_list":{"0":"post-12468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-angeles","9":"tag-diner","10":"tag-elon","11":"tag-find","12":"tag-hollywood","13":"tag-los","14":"tag-musk","15":"tag-opened","16":"tag-wrong"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12468","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=12468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018It is what it is\u2019<\/h2>\n
Musk\u2019s \u2018retro-futurism\u2019<\/h2>\n