More Than a Charging Station, More Than a Fast-Food Joint, the Tesla Diner Might Just Be Crazy Enough to Work

In case you need the reminder, car companies don't own and operate restaurants. Then again, they don't own and operate gas stations, either, and Tesla has proven owning and operating its own charging network was a brilliant business decision. The Tesla Diner, though, is uncharted territory. Will history repeat itself?

- SCOTT EVANS

At its core, it's a simple idea: an upscale fast-food restaurant with a retro-future theme located at a Supercharger outpost, owned and operated by Tesla.

The roughly 9,300-square-foot restaurant resides in Hollywood, California, and seats 250-plus patrons combined on the ground floor and roof of the three-story building. (The second floor is inaccessible.) Situated on a corner lot, the building is surrounded on two sides by 30 V4 Supercharger towers. It's connected at a corner to another Supercharger station on an adjacent property with an additional 50 charging towers.

It looks like a restaurant you'd find in Disney's Tomorrowland, with a similar level of execution and attention to detail. The various iterations of Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot seen in display cases embedded into the staircase walls can also make you feel like you're touring Tony Stark's house in Iron Man 2.

Prices are typical for an upscale, independent diner in L.A., about $14 for a smashburger, for example, though $4 for a regular-size fountain drink is excessive. Much of the menu reminds you of a Shake Shack, with a few extra special items promised but already disappearing from the menu within the first few weeks. Ingredients are sourced locally in Southern California.