With all the craziness in his life – You’d think that Tesla chief Musk would have lost track of – if not interest in all together – his pet ‘diner’ project. But Elon’s electric car-themed joint seems to still be ‘charging’ right along…
Limited opportunities…
What it really was, was a response to a third-party observation that Musk may have built a great electric car. But there were almost no opportunities for a driver to recharge one without sticking close to home. Or some Tesla-tuned, Musk-mediated environment. Or a state such as California, where the government was installing recharging stations all over the place to encourage the pur-chase of electric vehicles…
The overall concept is also a bit dark – like a TRON set on a good day. And the menu is described as ‘retro-futuristic’ – can you say ‘consciously newstalgic’?
The outstanding architectural feature of the mostly-glass-walled (though not on the ground floor) is that its rounded. (There’s that Jetsons reference, again!) What’s not curved glass is brushed aluminum. Like the body work on a classic diner. And instead of call-boxes to summon severs on roller skates – some 80 Supercharger EV charging stations are spotted around the site.
Prestige location
The generous real estate foot print of the pilot Supercharger Diner and Drive-In is smack in the middle of an LA hotspot: 7001 West Santa Monica Boulevard. A drive-in haven on a hot cruisin’ boulevard that culminates in a timeless LA beach.
Anyway… The inaugural Santa Monica location is now open – 24/7/365. No word on how popular it is – relying as it does overwhelmingly on drive-in and -thru vehicle traffic. But it appears Musk hedged his bets spotting the joint between Highland and La Brea, where the foot traffic is also mega, espe-cially after dark.
Nevertheless, the place itself definitely shouts ‘updated American Drive-In’, now. Which means that a lot has changed in the concept since the first round of ‘architect’s vision’ art was unveiled.
My take
I’ve just checked back on it… The first look, here at the FFB, back in September, 2023, was decidedly more ‘Jetson’s’ than ‘diner’ – with the ‘crossover’ theme solidly in the Douglas Adams’ Hitchikers’ Guide To The Galaxy (H2G2) wheelhouse. Being a trendy restaurant, it was naturally branded as ‘Milliways’, and featured loads of chrome and neon…
The Supercharger, on the other hand, unmistakably shouts, “If you can afford one of Elon’s EVs, you CAN afford to eat here!”
And next time you’re in LA, remember: ANYBODY can afford to drive by and scope-out the joint…
~ Maggie J.