Phila Lorn’s favorite childhood food no longer exists, he says. It also probably broke a few laws.

The chef grew up near the corner of 7th and Jackson Streets in South Philly, where summer meant 25-cent cups of cherry water ice that his Sicilian neighbors served out of their basement.

“All of us kids would beg our parents for quarters to get it,” Lorn told The Inquirer.

Now, everyone — from the New York Times to desperate foodies on Reddit — is begging for a table at Mawn, the modern Cambodian noodle house he co-owns with his wife Rachel. As soon as they opened the 28-seat restaurant at 764 S. Ninth St.in 2023, it was an immediate hit, drawing accolades from the James Beard Foundation (among others) and tailgaters for their walk-in only lunch. The couple’s second restaurant Sao, a raw bar along East Passyunk Street, is following a similar trajectory, with a viral $59 corn pancake topped with caviar and a menu full of other “Easter eggs” that delighted our critic Craig LaBan.

And yet, what’s most striking about the Lorns is their distinctly Philadelphian love story: The couple met while working at acclaimed Rittenhouse sushi restaurant Zama, where Rachel — who grew up in East Falls and graduated from CAPA — served Phila a Shirley Temple with too many cherries on her first day of bartender training in 2011. Their first date was at the Landmark Ritz Five movie theater in Old City, and they wed in 2018.

Rachel and her parents, Phila said, were his “first influencers.”

“I was in the hood, dude … deep South Philly,” said Phila. “And I was reminded of how great Philadelphia can be through Rachel and her parents, who took me to all the hot spots.”

Rachel fell into restaurants by way of her mother who worked in the hotel industry, and her father, a photographer. Her childhood favorites include pizza from By George inside Reading Terminal Market — which was across the street from her father’s photo studio — and mussels with red sauce from the Bocce Club in Point Breeze. The whole place, she said with a smile, “smelled like matches.”

The couple, who live in East Passyunk with their 4-year-old son Otis, told the Inquirer that owning two restaurants can often feel all-consuming. On the day of this interview in early April, three of their employees had called out due to automotive accidents.

“The stress travels with us secretly … It affects our days off,” Phila said. “When we get up, we’re trying to find the ratio of the 24 hours that we have to compartmentalize [caring for] our son and our house, and decompressing.”

So what does a perfect day in Philly look like for a couple who lives and works together? The Lorns spend it by thrifting and restaurant hopping across Rittenhouse Square, South Philly, and Kensington — with an ice cream break in between.

Phila Lorn: On a perfect day, Otis wakes up this early so Rachel can get him ready for school while I pretend I’m in deep to get a few extra minutes in bed. Once I’m up, I’ll head to Rival Bros. [on Tasker St.] and ask for one of everything in the pastry case, plus their canned [nitro] cold brew. I call it crack in a can. That jawn hits.

Rachel Lorn: If Phila is feeling extra spicy, he’ll also pop into Kouklet to pick up their chicken curry hand pies and some caramels to snack on throughout the day. We go there a lot. But if this is my perfect day, I’m taking a long time to get ready and dancing around the bathroom to some throwback Mariah Carey and Beyoncé. Maybe I’ll indulge in a face mask. I like the Biologique Rechere Masque Pigm 400 [sheet] mask — I used it before the James Beard Awards and my skin looked like glass.

PL: We drive to Oyster House and I’ll get frustrated because we can’t find parking and head to Parc.

RL: Phila won’t walk anywhere. He’s the type of guy who thinks the middle of the grocery store parking lot is too far away from the door.

PL: My legs are made of linguine! Anyway, at Parc I’ll get escargot and the [grilled] chicken sandwich in that order to keep things ghetto fabulous — and we’re definitely getting a second bread basket. What I like about Parc is that if I go in there and you blindfold me, I’ll think I’m in f—ing France. It’s that consistent.

RL (rolling her eyes): We’ve never been to France, but yeah it captures our idea of France. I’m eating all the bread — especially the cranberry walnut loaf — and tucking into the [warm] shrimp salad.

PL: Next, we head over to our favorite vintage store Sweet Peel. The owners [Jen Zimmerman and Abby Codrea] curates a lot of clothes from the ‘70s there, which I feel my new dad bod looks best in. Rachel and I rarely leave empty-handed.

RL: We’re going to pop into Fountain Porter for a late afternoon burger, and I’m going to indulge in a small Guinness because they do the best pour. Their burger is the perfect size — not too small, not too big — and their lettuce is always cold and crispy.

PL: It’s just one of those things that taste better when someone else does it for you. It’s like, “Yeah, I can make a burger myself, but thanks so much for doing it for us.”

PL: After we pick Otis up to school we like to go straight to Milk Jawn and have a cup of ice cream each.

RL: I like mint chocolate, he likes chocolate, and you like vanilla. Then, we’ll walk to CJ & D’s Trenton Pies to get pizza for Otis.

PL: He basically just runs around and everyone thinks he’s so cute. Sometimes, we also get recognized.

It’s actually pretty funny because as a chef, I used to joke about being “deviled egg famous,” [as in] when you go into a restaurant, the chef recognizes you, and he sends out an awesome plate of deviled eggs. But we’re also not those type of people … We didn’t come into this game for rockstar status. We only know how to do this one specific thing of ours.

PL: On a perfect day, my brother will come over to babysit Otis so Rachel and I can go out. To get the most out of the small amount of time we have to ourselves, we’ll go to one place for drinks and one place for dinner.

We recently went to Next of Kin, and the bartender was nice enough to give us a temporary tattoo for our son. It really is the little things.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at Amá with Rachel’s mom. It sounds corny, but I love going out to eat with family. I’m with my parents at some point on a perfect day.

The cocktails there were also so banging that we broke our rule and ordered drinks. I think I had the best cocktail of the year there — I don’t remember what it’s called but it tasted like drinking a salad. (Editor’s note: It was the Always Sunny In Puebladelphia.) All of the food there was also great. It looked like you would know how everything was going to taste, and then everything would take a left turn in your mouth.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.