
Elon Musk Will Subject His Notoriously Thin Skin To Restaurant Critics
Elon Musk, the Tesla investor turned CEO whose decisions as unelected leader of the US government have prompted a stock-tanking backlash against his electric car company and an unprecedented exodus from his social media company, X (formerly Twitter), has set his sights on a new industry to ruin: restaurants. Thatâs right, friends. The notoriously thin-skinned magnate, who announced this week that the government would âgo afterâ people who have the temerity to criticize his car brand, has revived long-dormant plans to open a Tesla-themed restaurant in Los Angeles, multiple outlets have reported. Little does Elon Musk realize that the average protester at a Tesla dealership has nothing on a Yelp Elite squad member.
According to a tweet from Sawyer Merritt, a prominent Tesla investor who has clashed with Musk over Merrittâs tweets sharing âconfidentialâ Tesla information, the car company is plotting a Hollywood diner with â1950s retro charm, dazzling neon lights, [and] the unmistakable scent of freshly grilled burgers & hand-spun milkshakes.â Also on deck for the restaurant, Merritt writes, âa drive-in movie theater with two 45-foot LED movie screens and over 75 V4 Supercharger stalls.â
The bio-dad of 14 (at least two of whom he allegedly ignores) appeared to confirm the news when he commented âIt will be coolâ beneath Merrittâs tweet soon after.
The restaurantâs head chef will be Eric Greenspan, Merritt reports. Greenspan is an LA-based chef whoâs appeared on Iron Chef America and multiple shows from chef/TV host Guy Fieri, whose comments in relation to President Donald Trump are not as supportively full-throated as Muskâs, but are definitely not resistant to his agenda. Perhaps thatâs why the Instagram account Merritt claims is for the business has âDiner, drive-in movie and big chargersâ as its profile description, arguably a take on Fieriâs series Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
The New York Times reports that in addition to Greenspan, the restaurantâs incorporation documents name William Chait as the company manager. The San Francisco Chronicle notes that Chiat was the former managing partner of influential restaurant group Sprout LA; until recently, he was also listed as a partner in Tartine, a San Francisco bakery made nationally famous by its Tartine Bread cookbook, a mainstay of many a bakerâs kitchen. (According to a spokesperson for Tartine who spoke with the SF Standard, âBill Chait is not part of the Tartine management teamâŠHe is one of the companyâs many investors. Tartine has nothing to do with Tesla, except both words start with the letterâ T.ââ Chait and Greenspan have not responded to Vanity Fairâs request for comment.)
General views of Elon Musk’s new Tesla Diner & Drive-In along the Historic Route 66 stretch of Santa Monica Blvd on March 25, 2025 in Hollywood, California.
AaronP/Bauer-Griffin
News of a Tesla diner first surfaced in 2018, when Musk tweeted that he was âGonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA.â Back then, the announcement was greeted with pleasure by SoCal denizens and Tesla fans, who likely had no clue that the once-admirable magnate would be standing on stage making a Nazi-reminiscent gesture and/or announcing that his very-much-alive daughter is dead just a few years later.
According to Mona Holmes with Eater LA, construction finally began on the restaurant site (a former Shakeyâs Pizza on Santa Monica Boulevard near La Brea Avenue) around a year ago, citing a post to X by Tesla chief designer Alex Ingram. Now close to completion, as you can see in the recent photo above, no opening date has been announced.
Speaking of X, Musk also announced on Friday that he had sold the social media platformâŠto himself. More precisely, he sold the business (which he purchased in 2022) to his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, in a $33 billion all-stock deal.
Money moves like these are fairly common for first-time restauranteurs, I say only partially in jestâbut many aspiring food entrepreneurs sell off their stuff, refinance their homes, and more to fund their dining dreams. Itâs a punishing, low-margin business, one that comes with obstacles and harsh critiques from all sidesâcritiques that get even harsher when politics are brought into the mix. Just ask Andrew Dudum, the pro-RFK co-founder of Trump-supporting weight loss/erectile disfunction drug sales company Hims & Hers, who took a painful drubbing on Yelp (and some say, in business) when he co-opened a San Francisco doughnut shop.
Some have theorized that Musk first purchased X, then known as Twitter, because he hoped to silence his critics. But we donât have to theorize when it comes to how he feels about those who speak out against Tesla. Speaking with Fox Newsâs Bret Baier on Thursday, Musk said this of the recent uprising against Tesla: âWhy? Whatâs happening, it seems to me, is [protesters are] being fed propaganda by the far left, and they believe it.â
âThe ones pushing the lies and propaganda, weâre going after them,â the man who has described himself as a âfree speech absolutistâ continued. âI think thereâs some real evil out there. We have to overcome it.â
Itâs unclear exactly how Musk expects to silence those critical of his (frankly, mid) cars, especially given the hundreds of protests planned at dealerships this weekend. But shutting up people who want to say unpleasant things about his restaurant might be too big a task even for him. That said, Yelp was co-founded by Jeremy Stoppelman, who Vanity Fair described in 2013 as âa member of the PayPal Mafia, an informal group of PayPal founders that includes Reid Hoffman, Elon Musk, and Peter Thiel.â Will Muskâs tech bro connections lead to the removal of negative Yelp reviews? If so, that might be the greatest trick that guy has pulled yet.
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