I visited the Tesla dinner site before its opening. The building already changes the horizon of Hollywood.

• Business Insider visited the construction site where the Tesla restaurant concept takes shape.
• The retro futuristic restaurant with EV chargers seems to be almost finished.
• Two screens of imminent films can be seen dominant in the sky with a few houses.

In the midst of the recent discounts of public spending by Elon Musk, the founder billionaire Tesla has simultaneously made silent and frantic progress in a fully different commercial enterprise – the Tesla Diner & Drive -In -in.

The project based in Los Angeles dates back to 2018, when Musk reflected online on a 24 -hour restaurant spot that would serve restaurants and offer entertainment options to Tesla drivers needing to load their electric vehicles.

Seven years later, Musk’s vision of a double restoration point has materialized. Planning high on an animated Hollywood block, the site has two 45 -foot LED film screens and dozens of V4 compressor stands, as well as an outdoor and open -air roof under the reliable sun of Los Angeles.

As a former journalist of Business Insider and resident of West Hollywood, I spent a Friday morning earlier this month to investigate the surprisingly calm construction site before the still unknown opening of dinner.

Here’s what I saw.

The site occupies an entire street corner on a section in charge of boulevard Santa Monica.

The Tesla Diner & Drive-in is on the north side of the famous boulevard Santa Monica de Los An The route extends back to N Orange Drive.

The site is close to two of the busiest intersections in Hollywood, and only a few houses of Homes from the Highway 101, where hundreds of thousands of drivers enter and come out of traffic every day. The leading location and easy access to the highway plays in favor of the restaurant.

Before being transformed into a retro-futuristic restaurant of Musk, the land housed a pizza in Shakey.

In August 2023, the Los Angeles County Construction and Security Department approved the plans for the Tesla Diner. Construction had evolved quickly since the year and a half. It seems to be almost done.

Tesla and the engineering and architecture firm working on the project, Stantec, did not respond to BI requests on the date of completion or opening of the restaurant.

I was surprised by the calm of the construction site for a Friday morning.

I spent about twenty minutes traveling the corner of the rue du Dinner, looking through the chain fence surrounding the whole of the enclosure. The closing covered with graffiti was covered by a tattered fabric, apparently intended to keep rhythms of look like me to spy on it.

However, the pieces of fabric cover allowed me to take a look behind the curtain, where I observed four construction workers. Two men chatted with each other on the spot during my entire twenty -minute visit, while two others worked independently on various projects around the building.

I saw a private security guard standing outside the site.

The security guard, who wore a “universal safety” jacket, was held on N Orange Drive, probably watching over the side entrance to the site.

The nice young man told me that he had “no idea” when the restaurant was supposed to open. BUT A BUT!

The essential focal points on the site are its two imposing video screens.

In an X job Last month, Tesla Sawyer Merritt’s investor described giant structures as 45 -foot LED film screens. Musk replied to the position: “It will be cool.”

I did not bring my ribbon to measure to confirm their measures, but I can confirm that they are looming in every sense of the word.

A construction permit in 2022 for the restaurant said that the screens would show half -hour films – just enough time for a Tesla driver to load, The New York Times reported earlier this year.

More recently, Musk said that screens would show old cinema clips, contributing to the retro atmosphere of the site.

In 2023, he posted on X that the atmosphere of the space will be “Grease met jetsons with overeating”.

The two screens are at the diagonal ends of the half acres complex, both wrapped in a metal exterior.

I could see the back of one of the screens with a few houses.

I traveled a Mile of West Hollywood for my pilgrimage to Tesla Diner & Drive-in. While I approached the site to a few houses in the west, I first spotted the back of one of the giant video screens.

I did not know what was the big structure in the sky on my initial approach, but I took this photo on my step back, after witnessing the giant screens closely.

Here is a view of one of the screens directly.

This particular screen is on the side of the dinner building. The other screen is located from the lens, at the back and right.

The building itself is a silver saucer-shaped structure with geometric fulfillments.

Some of the fancy load terminals were ready to leave.

During my visit to the site, I saw dozens of shiny and white charging stations and Teslala start to be installed in the paved parking lot of the restaurant.

Finally, the site will house more than 75 V4 compressor stands, said Merritt in its March update on X.

Even if Tesla takes tubes linked to musks in recent weeks, Los Angeles remains a place suitable for electric vehicles.

Musk’s electric vehicle company felt the burning of its foray into politics, Tesla sales plunging 13% in the first three months of 2025 – The the worst quarter of the company since the first three months of 2022. The stock is down more than 36% in 2025.

Meanwhile, Tesla vehicles, dealerships and charging stations across the country were the sites of vandalism and demonstrations Since Trump was inaugurated.

When the restaurant opens, it will be difficult to miss – whether by drivers looking for a load or demonstrators who have made Tesla Ground Zero locations for expressed their dissatisfaction with the growing political influence of Elon Musk.

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