When Dara Mirjahangiry met Kevin Durant at a Brooklyn Nets game, the basketball star was looking for a place to hang out "after the game, somewhere where I can go and feel like it's almost like a membership club for the culture," Mirjahangiry tells Entrepreneur.
That's exactly what his restaurant, Sei Less, did, and it's now a favorite of Durant and other big-name athletes, as well as celebrities like Cardi B and 50 Cent.
"It starts with the food," Mirjahangiry says.
"Giving them an outlet where we have private dining rooms, and somewhere that they could come feel comfortable."
Mirjahangiry, a self-described "trailblazer" in the restaurant industry, says he learned how to build brands through person-to-person networking when social media came around.
"I built my following, built a brand for myself," he says.
"It's just being able to connect the dots."
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