The ‘Seinfeld’ Episode That Got Jerry Seinfeld (& A Famous Costar) Banned From a Popular Restaurant for Life
· Vice
During its nine years on the air, Seinfeld produced quite a few influential episodes. But perhaps none had more of an effect on the show’s cast members than Season 7’s “The Soup Nazi.” Originally airing on November 2, 1995, the episode features Jerry, George, and the gang visiting a local soup stand run by a man with very strict rules about how his customers may interact with him. Should somebody not adhere to his unclear policies, they run the risk of the so-called “Soup Nazi” turning them away and declaring, “No soup for you!”
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According to the episode’s writer, Spike Feresten, the Soup Nazi character (as played by Larry Thomas) was based on real-life soup proprietor Ali Yeganeh, who owned Soup Kitchen International in New York City when the show was still on the air. Feresten had been telling Larry David about Yeganeh’s reputation around town, which apparently wasn’t far off from how he ended up being portrayed, and David liked it so much that he told Feresten to write a script about it. Wayne Knight, who played Newman, had also encountered Yeganeh and remembered feeling concerned about upsetting him on several occasions. But upset him he did, along with everyone else involved with the show, once the episode hit the airwaves.
A little while later, Jerry Seinfeld decided to go to Yeganeh’s restaurant for lunch, despite Feresten telling him it wasn’t a good idea. Needless to say, Yeganeh was not happy with his on-screen portrayal and made it perfectly clear to Seinfeld, calling him a “f—–g a—–e” in the process. He then demanded that Seinfeld apologize for ruining his life, after which Seinfeld gave him what Feresten called the most sarcastic apology he’d ever seen. As a result, Seinfeld was subsequently banned from the restaurant, and the two don’t appear to have ever reconciled, with Yeganeh even referring to Seinfeld as “an idiot clown” in one interview.
But Seinfeld wasn’t the only cast member to feel Yeganeh’s wrath in the aftermath of the episode’s release. Jason Alexander, who’d actually been to the soup stand previously and hadn’t had any negative experiences with Yeganeh, earned himself a ban as well. As Alexander tells it, he was in line at Yeganeh’s shop one day following the show’s premiere, and although he tried his best to keep a low profile, someone eventually pointed him out, and Yeganeh angrily ejected him from the store. Alexander later learned that Yeganeh’s hatred for them was particularly strong because his family had escaped from Nazi territory during World War II.
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