Well, it's been a minute since Tartine Bakery was making headlines for its unionization dispute. And now that everything associated with Elon Musk has the stink of Trumpian Republicans and oligarchs running roughshod through our government, a Tartine partner getting in bed with Musk is not a good look.

It looks as though, as the New York Times and Chronicle are reporting, Bill Chait, the LA restaurateur who came on the managing partner of Tartine several years back, is working on Elon Musk's plan to open a Tesla-branded "retro-futuristic" diner and drive-in theater in Hollywood, which we first heard about this week.

Chait was an investor in Tartine going back to 2016, and was listed as a partner around the time that Tartine was expanding to LA, and as husband and wife co-founders Chad Robertson and Elizabeth Preuitt were divorcing. He was also quoted in several media pieces from three and four years ago when the Tartine Union dispute was rumbling — like this New Yorker piece, in which he pushed back on the idea that Tartine was some sort of "conglomerate."

Also joining the team for this Tesla diner will be chef Eric Greenspan, a familiar face for watchers of the Food Network, and especially Guy's Grocery Games — though Greenspan has yet to comment publicly about the project.

Musk has been talking about this diner idea since 2018 — when he tweeted about building "an old school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla supercharger locations in LA."

But, of course, he was a more popular figure in 2018 than he is currently, and it doesn't exactly seem like the most opportune time for Tesla to open a public-facing business like this in a largely liberal city like Los Angeles — but has anyone credited Musk with terrific self-awareness anytime in the last five years?

Much as the X/Twitter brand has been tainted since Musk took it over, Tesla is likely to continue taking hits as many Tesla owners and the general public are outraged about Musk running roughshod through the federal government, slashing and burning entire agencies at his whim, and without analysis, rationale, or transparency — it's all, he and Trump say, simply "waste" until anyone says otherwise.

And the opening of this diner is guaranteed to come with more protest than fanfare.

Chait, for his part, appears to have edited his LinkedIn page in the last hour, trying to suggest that he ceased to be an investor in Tartine in March 2019. An earlier version showed him as "president" of Tartine, and he was clearly quoted as a managing partner in multiple publications as of 2022. His new position is listed as Restaurant Investor in LA Restaurant Group.

Tartine has yet to comment on the situation, and neither has Chait, or Tesla. It's certainly possible that Chait became involved in this Tesla diner project years ago — and he is best known for LA projects like Bestia, Otium, and Rose Venice. Chait's company Zero2One LLC is the one listed as doing the hiring for the upcoming Tesla diner.

Tartine's current CEO is Dar Vasseghi, who is also based in Los Angeles, and previously held executive roles at Chobani and Jamba Juice.

The Times reports that work on the Tesla diner, which is located on Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood and might be called Milliways, per the rendering above, is "progressing rapidly," and KCAL just did a broadcast from the construction site last weekend.

Update: Tartine CEO Dar Vasseghi has issued a statement. "Rumors are flying about a supposed tie between Tartine and Tesla, and I’d like to set the record straight: Bill Chait is not part of the Tartine management team and has not held the title of company president for the past 5+ years. He is one of the company’s many investors. Tartine has nothing to do with Tesla, except both words start with the letter 'T'."

Top image: Rendering by Ed Howard/Howard Models