Contrary to legend, Persian rugs cannot fly, but they do have the ability to surreptitiously knot their tassels around chair legs and sofa cushions to tie a room together. Taste the power of Fertile Crescent culture with today's Groupon to Shalezeh. Choose between the following options:

• For $15, you get $30 worth of traditional Persian fare, mixed drinks, and wine.
• For $25, you get $50 worth of traditional Persian fare, mixed drinks, and wine.

Shalezeh's chefs simmer, roast, and spice Persian specialties to craft a menu of Middle Eastern delicacies so authentic it earned the restaurant a Michelin Guide star in 2010 and 2011. Tender morsels of lamb hide beneath luscious greens in the ghormeh sabzi stew ($16), stalking around plates undetected in search of taste buds. Eggplant puree stars in many appetizers, including delectable mint and garlic mirza ($8), and microchopped parsley, tomato, and cracked wheat mingle with citrus and mint in the tabuleh salad ($6). Rich dishes find conversation-lubricating soul mates among the restaurant's wines ($20+/half bottle), and adventurous diners sip specialty pomegranate cocktails ($9–$10) from the diverse drink menu while scrutinizing the dining room's monumental mountainside tableau for the tiny, red-striped-shirt-clad image of Cyrus the Great.