While Tesla protests spread, Elon Musk is getting ready to enter the restaurant company

A retro-futuristic dinner rises on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. Bent, silvery and flanked by two outdoor film screens, it seems that a flying dish from a drive-in film from the 1950s had sailed and came to rest in the parking lot.

An opening date has not been announced, but Tesla’s all-night dinner, theater and charging station is clearly on the road. Which means that the leader of the company, Elon Musk, is about to enter the catering company.

In 2023, then Mr. Musk Posted on X That Tesla would build a restaurant in the city, he described it as “Met Fat Meet Jetsons with Supercharging.” As he has often done, he put his finger on an important piece of culture that is ripe for reinvestment-in this case dining of gas station in the era of electric cars, which are needed longer to charge than is necessary to fill a tank and a visionary, gee-whizh turning on it.

Who all made Tesla’s trip to restaurants into a much more charged prospect than it seemed recently.

Construction on the half hectare complex, designed by the engineering and architecture company StantucHas been moved quickly since it started in September 2023. Above white charging stations that are in the paved parking space, such as tombstones there are two raised screens, of which an application for a construction mit that was submitted in 2022 would be films that last about half an hour, or about the time that was needed to load a vehicle. Behind the curved walls and windows of the restaurant are padded moving blankets wrapped around which looks like circular banquets. An observer with sharp eyes noted that the Tesla app has been updated With code for a dinner menu in January.

For many months, the company is approaching well-known chefs about providing food.

When Caroline Styne and Suzanne Goin, who are the owner Lucca group From restaurants in Los Angeles, in 2023 a request from Tesla established about the operation of the restaurant, they did not decide. The restaurant would not have a drink permit, said Mrs. Styne, which made the economy a challenge, and moreover: “We are not a drive-in-dinner type of people.”

Mrs. Styne has not changed his mind there, but she now sees the car manufacturer differently. Last week she replaced her Tesla with an electric BMW.

“This person has played such an important role in everything that is going on and influences everyone’s daily life,” she said about Mr. Musk. “And it is so strange if you think this person was not even chosen.”

Wolfgang Puck CateringThose after the Academy Awards offers chicken pocks and other food for the annual party, was also approached by Tesla around the same time, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions that asked anonymity to talk about confidential conversations. The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The project is so closely monitored that restaurant groups first have to sign a non -public making agreement that, among other things, prohibits disclosure of the agreement itself, according to two people who have requested anonymity because they had signed one.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

For many chefs, a wonderfully well-funded company that offers an opportunity to run an innovative restaurant that receives virtually guaranteed attention is a answered prayer. In interviews, various restaurant owners said they would be interested if Tesla would call.

“It sounds exciting,” said the chef Walter Manzke, who owns Republic In Los Angeles with his wife, Margarita. “She recently told me she wants to buy a Tesla, so I can tell you which side she is standing.”

New York-based chef John Fraser said he and other people in his group, JF -Restaurantsstarted talking about gas station food, a genre where they saw room for improvement.

“Every time a location or a style of a food service changes the way food and drink are included in our lives, I want to be involved,” said Mr Fraser. “This location will probably do that because it changes the idea of ​​what a gas station or supermarket could be.”

While registrations of Tesla vehicles in California Last year fell around 12 percent, The model Y was still far away The best -selling new car In the state. Few American cities went to Tesla as quickly and enthusiastically, where high gas prices, warm weather, environmental consciousness, local policy and the main start of the company in the electric car-race-racing voltage to make Tesla sometimes look like the standard machine of the city.

The early affection of the Tesla area inspired Shake To approach the company with a proposal before it opened its first location in Los Angeles in 2016.

“We said:” We are in the country Tesla – why don’t we see if they want to place a number of charging stations in our parking lot? “” “Danny Meyer, he helped to find Shake Shack. The maker of electric vehicles was not interested at that time, Mr. Meyer said.

He said he had not been talking about the dinner project and probably would not assume it.

Before his restaurants enter into similarities with museums, ballparks and the like, Mr. said. Meyer: “We wonder if our artwork belongs in that frame.” As for Tesla: “That is not a frame that I would choose,” he said. “I may have 10 years ago because I think it had a different shine at the time.” At the time, the brand “all over the environment,” he said. “It seemed a pretty cool thing.”

The chef Paul Kahan, from One -off hospitality In Chicago said that for various reasons he would not be interested in working with Mr. Musk’s company. “I prefer to stay out of madness and lean in unity,” he said.

Many restaurant owners are reluctant to express every opinion about Tesla because of the combative views, both Pro and Con, that people now have about the company.

“I would not imagine that most of my friends say yes to this,” said the chef David Chang, who lives in Los Angeles County. “But I couldn’t imagine that they want to say that publicly because of how polarizing both sides are.”

Certain controversial issues used to be called the third rail of American politics. Now all American politics is the third rail. For restaurant owners who are used to making their values ​​on issues such as the environment and the immigration company of the image of their company, navigating through the cross -currents of public opinion can be a challenge.

Every chef with other restaurants should take Mr. Musk’s reputation in the Calculus before signing a deal, said Max Block, founder of the Los Angeles Hospitality-Communications Agency Cuttingwclock. On the other hand, a restaurant where drivers could watch a film from their charging station while eating a carhops meal on roller skates – such as Mr. Musk has suggested – an appeal to what Mr. Block ‘called a culture in which people dine for experiences’.