Imagine, if you will, sitting at your local bar watching the World Series. The beers and appetizers are aplenty. Your favorite team is playing, everyone’s happy, and the place explodes in feral fandom with every home run hit.
But there’s a catch. What if for every home run your team hit in the game, you and all your fellow fans at the bar got 10% taken off of your bar tab? As in, if you’re a Yankees fan and Juan Soto has a three-homer game in the Series, you’d get a 30% discount.
Well, a New York City restaurant is taking that plunge. Sei Less, an Asian fusion spot tucked away just off a corner near Penn Station, will offer that very deal for those eating and drinking at the restaurant bar throughout the World Series.
Unless you’re looking for Sei Less, you’ll miss it. Its front doors only offer a window to a neon lit quote from Jean-Michel Basquiat with some Asian-influenced design. It looks like just another fancy Chinese restaurant you’d find anywhere in Midtown.
But upstairs, owner Dara Mirjahangiry’s vision comes to life. Part speakeasy, part bar/lounge, part intimate date night setting, the owner saying “We do it all” is an understatement.
“Sei Less is a culmination of everything I’ve done in the hospitality business throughout my career,” Dara told me as we sat in a decadent dining room. “But the real vision was to create a members club/members experience type thing. Obviously, there’s no membership fee, but if you know? You know.”
That very experience has made Sei Less a popular place among New York’s professional athletes. Several Yankees, namely Nestor Cortes and Anthony Volpe (among others) have become regulars. So has former Yankee CC Sabathia and NBA star Kevin Durant, whom Mirjahangiry knows from his days with the Thunder.
“I met Kev, Russ [Westbrook], and James [Harden] around the same time. I watched them grow throughout their careers. They’ve always been big supporters of the projects that I’ve been involved with.”
It’s just how another New York sports fan lives the dream. Mirjahangiry grew up a Knicks and Giants fan, and also the Seattle Mariners because of Ken Griffey Jr. However, once big Seattle bats like Tino Martinez came to New York, his loyalties changed.
Now, he’s as excited as the rest of the city for this World Series.
“It’s pretty epic that it’s Yankees-Dodgers,” he said. “A little East Coast/West coast. It’s been a little since the Yankees made it all the way to the final, but we’re excited for the World Series.”
Don’t plan the victory party yet, though. This owner takes things one game at a time.
Thus, if you’re craving something besides your everyday sports bar to watch the World Series (And save some money with every Yankees home run)? Well, excuse the pun, but simply sit at the bar and…Sei Less!
FOR FULL STORY ON STANDARD WEBSITE: NYC restaurant Sei Less offers quite the World Series special | Elite Sports NY