Despite Elon Musk’s many distractions these days—the seemingly botched Twitter takeover, the allegation that he exposed himself to a SpaceX employee and paid $250,000 to buy her silence—Tesla’s restless CEO is finding the time to make good on a four-year-old tweet: “Gonna put an old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA.”
Gonna put an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in LA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2018
That location is already something of an L.A. landmark: Shakey’s Pizza at Santa Monica Boulevard and Orange Drive. If Musk’s plan is approved by the L.A. City Planning Commission, the storied pizzeria, which has held down the corner since 1964, will be demolished and replaced with a Tesla Supercharger Diner & Drive-In, a 9,300-square-foot restaurant and outdoor movie theater where guests can refuel their Teslas while taking in a “reel of the best scenes in movie history.”
Not everyone, however, is thrilled with Musk’s shakedown. The announcement prompted a flood of complaints across social media from the pizzeria’s fans. “RIP to WeHo’s Santa Monica Blvd Shakey’s Pizza,” eulogized the L.A. historians at Esotouric. “Locals’ fave happy hour & birthday marquees no more. This is a Rte 66 loss.”
This story is featured in the July 2022 issue of Los Angeles
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