Tesla Diner’s struggles accelerate as chef speeds away

Cas Piancey
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The Tesla Diner was already navigating a bumpy road with Elon Musk’s mixed messages of what he desired from the restaurant: fast food but fancy, a charging station but also a drive-in movie theater, retro-futuristic but where even the popcorn robot does not function.

Unfortunately, it seems like Musk will need to be more hands-on at the eatery, seeing as how the head chef, Eric Greenspan, has departed to focus on his new delicatessen.

The chef had once posted that the diner would be open “from now until forever,” though Greenspan never stated whether or not that would include him in the picture.

While the initial plan was to serve people 24/7, only Tesla drivers can order from a limited menu between midnight (or 11 PM, depending on the day) and 6 AM.

The diner has been met with a mixed reception from the public, with Tesla and Musk enthusiasts adoring the cool chrome aesthetics, while neighbors complain about the noise and the large movie projector, with reviewers overwhelmingly suggesting the food is terrible.

From jam-packed to damn, whack

Love it or hate it, the Tesla Diner was filled full of eager customers, with lines often snaking outside the doors when it opened in July. However, as more poor reviews appeared – to the point that Yelp disallowed anyone to leave a review for several months – and the menu was repeatedly tinkered with, desire to try the Elon Musk brainchild has begun to wane.

Recent pictures on Yelp and Google reviews appear to show a largely empty restaurant and proclaim many of the same issues as early customers. A three-star review from November gives the “Experience: 5 stars! Food: 0 stars!”

Image courtesy of Bob G. on Yelp

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the staff are suggesting the diner will move from fast food-adjacent to a “new full-service format,” though it’s unclear exactly what this means or how it will differ from the current way the diner is operated.

Musk was still claiming at the end of last month that “the futuristic Tesla Diner is going well,” and that he believes it still makes sense “to open one near our Giga Texas HQ in Austin and engineering HQ in Palo Alto.” It is not clear how long we will need to wait for those future launches, perhaps as long as fans have been waiting for the SpaceX package Roadster that can fly, as the current Tesla Diner will need to replace its head chef.

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