Celebrity chef Ole Jonny’s Eikefjord’s black Tesla, which he owns together with Petter Stordalen, has become the talk of the town after repeated wrong parking. Since January last year, the car has received 31 parking fines.
The black Tesla, which is owned by hotel billionaire Petter Stordalen and celebrity chef Ole Jonny Eikefjord, has received 31 parking fines since 1 January last year. This is according to the Urban Environment Agency in Oslo municipality to E24.
– Over 30 fines sound very severe. But right where I’m standing now, I don’t have a complete overview, says Eikefjord, who is the one who drives the car on a daily basis.
The black Tesla is owned by the limited company Eik Savoy, where Eikefjord and Stordalen each own half of the shares. Through the company, the duo owns the restaurants Eik Annen Etage, Restaurant Eik, Restaurant Fjord and Bella Bambina, among others.
Petter Stordalen does not have much to say about the matter.
– Good weekend. Not my car, writes the billionaire on Thursday in a text message to E24.
I think it is impossible to park legally
Over the course of just over a year, the company has had to fork out at least NOK 29,000 in parking fees to Oslo municipality. In 2021, the company had a profit before tax of NOK 1.7 million.
– We have seven restaurants in the city centre, so there will be a lot of driving from place to place to transport and deliver goods, says Ole Jonny Eikefjord.
He says it is not only difficult and time-consuming to find a suitable and legal parking space near his restaurants.
– It is impossible. I cannot park the car in the Ibsen parking garage and carry two cases of wine to the restaurant from there. That’s how to run restaurants. The question is what is the easiest and quickest way to transport and deliver goods, says Eikefjord.
12 of the 31 fines the Tesla has received are due to incorrect parking in Universitetsgata. Here are two of Stordalen and Eikefjord’s gourmet restaurants Stordalen and Eikefjord own together, Restaurant Eik and Restaurant Fjord.
The frequent incorrect parking in this particular street has attracted the attention of a group of cycling enthusiasts on Twitter. They have noticed that the car is parked right outside the front door of the gourmet restaurant.
“Outside Eik/Savoy, the same Tesla parks incorrectly almost every single day. The owner obviously thinks that the cost of the fee is lower than the benefits of parking in the immediate vicinity of work,” writes user Ulrik Eriksen in a post.
Eikefjord believes this is an exaggeration.
– It is not true that the car is there every day, but it is probably there more often than it should be. As a rule, it is left outside for a fairly short time, so that I can transport and deliver goods to the restaurants. But sometimes the car probably stays there for several hours too, he says.
– I am not obstructing any cyclists by standing there. It is a dead end and the road is many meters wide, he adds.
The restaurant owner states that he has a parking space in the garage of the Hotel Continental, where he runs the restaurant Annen Etage.
