Chef Eric Greenspan. Courtesy Julio Gallardo

After opening the Tesla Diner in West Hollywood on July 21, chef Eric Greenspan spent numerous days essentially living at the restaurant.

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“I was working 20 hours a day for the first two weeks,” Greenspan tells Observer during his first interview about the most buzzed-about restaurant in Los Angeles. 

There was a lot of chaos and unpredictability, of course, including 2,000-plus-cover days, long wait times and anti-Elon Musk protesters with bullhorns. So Greenspan did what veteran chefs do: He focused on what he could control. 

That’s how he found himself in the kitchen developing new dishes at 2 a.m. after his dining room was closed, but while his team was still fulfilling orders for Brandt Beef burgers and Frecker Farms strawberry milkshakes that were placed by visitors inside Teslas parked at the diner’s supercharger lot.

“While I was corralling the beast, I had to go to R&D mode, which was a little crazy,” Greenspan says.

Things have since stabilized at the diner. It’s still extremely busy on weekends, but the hype has died down a bit, and Greenspan estimates that guest counts are down 15 to 20 percent from the peak. Plus, Greenspan has improved ticket times by honing in on his most popular dishes, cutting items that were slowing down the kitchen and not serving his breakfast menu all day.

Come for breakfast or lunch on a weekday, and you likely won’t be part of a frenzy. On a lunch visit last week, I was able to place a touchscreen order immediately and got the hot dog, chili, tuna melt, matcha latte and chocolate shake within 10 minutes of walking inside. On a breakfast run, getting chicken and waffles with add-ons of cheese sauce and bacon also took less than 10 minutes. This is........

© Observer