{"id":14688,"date":"2025-08-27T12:56:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/tesla-diner-chef-eric-greenspan-unveils-new-menu-items-exclusive\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T12:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:56:09","slug":"tesla-diner-chef-eric-greenspan-unveils-new-menu-items-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/27\/tesla-diner-chef-eric-greenspan-unveils-new-menu-items-exclusive\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Diner Chef Eric Greenspan Unveils New Menu Items: Exclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chef Eric Greenspan. Courtesy Julio Gallardo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After opening the <\/span>Tesla Diner<\/span><\/a> in West Hollywood on July 21, chef Eric Greenspan<\/a> spent numerous days essentially living at the restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI was working 20 hours a day for the first two weeks,\u201d Greenspan tells Observer during his first interview about the most buzzed-about restaurant in Los Angeles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a lot of chaos and unpredictability, of course, including 2,000-plus-cover days, long wait times and anti-Elon Musk<\/a> protesters with bullhorns. So Greenspan did what veteran chefs do: He focused on what he could control.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s 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<\/a> burgers and Frecker Farms<\/a> strawberry milkshakes that were placed by visitors inside Teslas parked at the diner\u2019s supercharger lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I was corralling the beast, I had to go to R&D mode, which was a little crazy,\u201d Greenspan says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Things have since stabilized at the diner. It\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tesla Diner opened on July 21. Courtesy Tesla<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Come for breakfast or lunch on a weekday, and you likely won\u2019t 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 especially impressive when you realize Greenspan runs a scratch kitchen that\u2019s cooking everything to order.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, the Tesla<\/a> Diner is unveiling a new menu that grew out of Greenspan\u2019s after-hours R&D sessions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThematically, we want to be an ode to the roadside diner in a new modern way,\u201d says Greenspan, who is operating the Tesla Diner<\/a> alongside restaurateur Bill Chait<\/a>. \u201cBut Tesla is a brand about sustainable abundance, and we definitely have a mandate in many ways to have plant-based options.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The country-fried portobello mushroom sandwich. Courtesy RFP Productions<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 50-year-old Greenspan, whose storied career includes being executive chef at the now-closed fine-dining stunner Patina when he was just 27, opening the critically acclaimed Foundry on Melrose, becoming a ghost-kitchen pioneer, launching MrBeast Burger<\/a> and creating the <\/span>New School<\/span><\/a> cheese brand, wants the Tesla Diner\u2019s plant-based dishes to offer the indulgence, nostalgia and comfort of classic diner food.<\/span><\/p>\n

So he came up with a country-fried portobello mushroom, which is glazed in tamari for extra umami and roasted in an oven before it\u2019s dredged and fried. It\u2019s topped with a plant-based gravy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt eats like white gravy,\u201d Greenspan says. \u201cIt\u2019s got the nutmeg. It\u2019s got the black pepper. It\u2019s got a bunch of caramelized onions that we pur<\/span>\u00e9e<\/span>d smooth. We finish it with a little bit of oat milk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The mushroom is served with arugula and pickles on a plant-based brioche bun. The $13 sandwich is \u201can ode to chicken-fried steak,\u201d per Greenspan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another new dish is a revision of a salad that Greenspan is now serving with a vegan green goddess dressing instead of the previous dill ranch. Greenspan is getting farmers market greens for the $9 kale-and-arugula salad, which also features cherry tomatoes, red onions that are pickled in-house and gluten-free breadcrumbs. Guests have the option of adding tuna, fried chicken or a burger patty to the salad.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The \u201cludicrous\u201d shake. Courtesy Tesla Diner<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greenspan is also planning to roll out an extensive shake program next week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe we serve the greatest milkshakes in America,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s working on new options like a ceremonial matcha shake with pandan. Guests will also be able to get an all-day pick-me-up in the form of a mocha milkshake or an espresso milkshake. What Greenspan is calling the \u201cludicrous\u201d shake ($13) will be half matcha and half strawberry with a whipped coconut topping. There will also be pie shakes, starting with a vanilla-based one with chunks of apple pie from Los Angeles bakery Winston\u2019s Pies<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Greenspan is running a high-volume diner, but he\u2019s still thinking like a fine-dining chef who\u2019s obsessed with local ingredients.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe purposely set up a fairly fragile supply chain,\u201d Greenspan says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a mandate from Tesla. It was a mandate from me. I looked at the ethos of the brand. I came up with the idea that the overwhelming majority of products that we serve here are sourced within one Tesla charge of the diner. So we\u2019re at about 300, 350 miles.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For his burgers, he\u2019s getting a proprietary prime blend from Brandt Beef, which has a family-owned Southern California ranch. He\u2019s serving Palisades Ranch and Mary\u2019s Chicken<\/a>. For his strawberry milkshake, he chops up Frecker Farms strawberries, roasts them in the oven and makes a chunky compote that he mixes with soft-serve from Valley Ford Cheese and Creamery<\/a>. He adds Straus Family Creamery<\/a> milk to his chocolate and vanilla milkshakes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For breakfast tacos, Greenspan is putting Chino Valley Ranchers<\/a> eggs and Baker\u2019s bacon on T<\/a><\/span>ehachapi Heritage Grain Project<\/a> tortillas. (In the aftermath of this year\u2019s devastating Los Angeles fires, Greenspan and Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project\u2019s Sherry Mandell<\/a> spearheaded 30,000 relief meals.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Greenspan went to Burbank\u2019s RC Provisions<\/a> and asked for an ode to the chili served at L.A.\u2019s <\/span>Original Tommy\u2019s<\/a> burger joints. But he wanted it with wagyu. RC Provisions, which actually makes the chili for Tommy\u2019s and the equally iconic pastrami for <\/span>Langer\u2019s<\/span><\/a>, satisfied Greenspan\u2019s appetite for indulgence, nostalgia and comfort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLook, it\u2019s hard to believe, but when I was in high school, I had a little bit of a weight problem,\u201d the heavyset Greenspan says with a smile. \u201cAnd I lost 50 pounds my junior year in high school. The carrot I would dangle in front of me was my cheat meal every Friday, which was to go to Tommy\u2019s and eat chili cheese fries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So you can, of course, order chili cheese fries at the Tesla Diner, which also offers cups of chili and chili-topped Snap-O-Razzo<\/a> hot dogs. Like so much of his food, the chili is a story about Greenspan\u2019s past, present and future. He is excited to share many more stories soon, but he\u2019s a little busy in the meantime.<\/span><\/p>\n

What he wants me to know now is that it wasn\u2019t his time at Patina that prepared him for this opening. It was cooking for the masses at Coachella, where he is a fixture in the culinary lineup. It was opening MrBeast Burger and serving 6,600 double smash burgers in a single day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremy Brumley<\/a>, a close friend of Greenspan\u2019s who was previously the chief operating officer of MrBeast Burger, raised his hand to help with the Tesla Diner opening. Greenspan laughs as he thinks about the previous chaos he and Brumley experienced together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy the fuck am I doing double burgers?\u201d he says, recalling his MrBeast experience. \u201cThis could be half as easy if I did single burgers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So for the Tesla Diner, Greenspan figured out how to make one-patty burgers in a new way.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI worked with Tesla engineers to design a smasher to take a third of a pound of beef and smash it in such a way that I got an inch disc of the smash, which is, in my opinion, the best part,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s that first bite and the last bite of the crunch. And in the middle is like a quarter pound of juicy, not smashed, not overcooked burger. I had the opportunity to do something unique because I had access to Tesla engineers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s had some discussions with Tesla about whether he should train a robot to make burgers. So far, he\u2019s declined.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing about this restaurant opening has been normal, but Greenspan says the challenge of \u201crunning into the fire\u201d is exactly why he and Chait signed up for the Tesla Diner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes Bill and I great partners is that both of us are the Kool-Aid Man,\u201d Greenspan says. \u201cWe\u2019ll both run through a brick wall to get shit done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been a wild experience thus far. VCG via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On July 23, two days after the Tesla Diner debuted, Greenspan sent me a text: \u201cIt\u2019s been exactly what I thought it would be. Wild, crazy and unprecedented.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I got another text from him on July 28: \u201cI\u2019ve never experienced anything remotely close to this madness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t had the time or brain space to properly process the madness. But again, the important thing right now is zeroing in on what he can control.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt some point, I look forward to sharing the details of what I think has been the craziest Los Angeles restaurant opening in history,\u201d he says. \u201cBut right now, I\u2019m focused on making sure that we continue the progress that we\u2019ve made to serve an exemplary product and to create a great experience. We\u2019ll tell stories in the future.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"One<\/p><\/div>\n