The 'Ted Lasso' star hit up the popular Bird Streets Club in WeHo Thursday night -- where he linked up with actress Elsie Hewitt ... giving her a nice little hug, and her reciprocating. She also grabbed his arm in a somewhat tender way ... and they went inside together.

There isn't much more PDA here beyond what you see in the pics -- but they certainly seem to indicate the two of them are friendly ... and perhaps more. They are, after all, both single.

JS reportedly split with 'Lasso' costar Keeley Hazell a couple years back -- this, of course, on the heels of his ugly breakup with longtime girlfriend/baby mama Olivia Wilde ... which was widely covered. Now, here he is chatting it up with Elsie -- but it's hard to tell what this is.

If they are, in fact, dating -- which we're just not sure of at this point -- it'd be an interesting trend for Jason in the age department. She's 27, and Keeley is 37 ... whereas Olivia's 39.

On its face, it feels like he might be going a little younger with his pool of potential partners.

While Jason and Olivia have both clearly moved on since splitting up -- they continue to co-parent pretty well ... they're constantly seen getting together with their 2 kids in tow.

Anyway, as for Elsie here ... she sure is a hot ticket, we'll give her that. And, she's also one of these young rising stars in the biz -- with roles on 'Dave' and other shows/movies.

One last thing of note ... Elsie was recently dating Benny Blanco, who's obviously now with Selena Gomez. So, like we said ... she appears to be available and ditto for Jason.