Get Ready for Sao: Mawn Owners Tease Their New Oyster Bar

Rachel and Phila Lorn, co-owners of Mawn and Sao / Photograph by Michael Persico

Before they came up with the idea for Mawn, Phila and Rachel Lorn thought about opening a seafood place. But it wasn’t until Phila had his car towed during a visit to his and Rachel’s favorite restaurant, Oyster House, that the couple revisited the idea. “It was such a hassle to get the car back, and I remember saying we should just open up an oyster bar,” Phila says, adding that his business partner at the time told him he wished there was an oyster bar in East Passyunk. “Now, it’s happening.”

For their latest venture, Sao — a Southeast Asian oyster bar that will open at 1710 East Passyunk Avenue (the former home of Ocho Rios Parilla) — the Mawn owners have teamed up with Rachel’s cousin, Jesse Levinson, a real estate agent and bartender with credits at The Dandelion and Vernick. Levinson will head up Sao’s bar program, while Phila will oversee the kitchen and Rachel will run the front of house. The team is finalizing renovations as they work toward opening in the coming weeks.

The space has a similar footprint to Mawn — 30 seats, including 10 at the bar — but it will have a different feel, with a large bar shared by bartenders and chefs shucking oysters serving as the focal point.

The decor will also be distinct. “We’re not using a designer, so we don’t have to be told to look a certain way,” Phila says. While the couple has drawn some inspiration from Boston’s Neptune Oyster, Sao will be very Philly. “We’re obviously very inspired by our city and our experiences,” Phila says. “I might even be as bold as to say that it’s kind of like Palizzi meets Oyster House.” There’ll also be a coastal vibe, with a beachy color palette, pops of bronze, and hints of being Down the Shore — a nod to Rachel’s late father, who was from Margate, New Jersey. The banquette, for example, is an old church pew that’s being redesigned to look like a boardwalk bench. And the cash register from the Atlantic City motel Rachel’s grandparents once owned will be behind the bar.

To help him run the kitchens at Mawn and Sao, Phila has enlisted two chefs. “There’s only one of me, and I can’t be in two places at once,” Phila says, adding that having the extra hands on deck will help him maintain the high quality of both restaurants. So, Dan Via, a Morimoto veteran who has spent the past couple of years working closely alongside Phila, will be stepping up as head chef at Mawn. And Rob Cammann, a professional scuba diver with a penchant for spearfishing and over a decade of restaurant industry experience, will be bringing his nautical expertise to Sao.

The scallop crudo is a special on Mawn’s menu, but scallop crudo, but it’s an example of the kind of crudo diners can expect to see on the menu at Sao. / Photograph by Hannah Boothman

Sao won’t just be a raw bar. There’ll be a mix of cold and hot fare, with much of the latter cooked gently over charcoal to evoke the aromas and flavors of coastal Cambodian seafood that Phila enjoyed on a 2008 trip. “Fresh seafood on Cambodian charcoal smells fucking different,” Phila says. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to bottle this up and sell it one day.’” Diners can expect dishes like a countryside fisherman noodle soup that Phila describes as “a blended curry khao poon,” head-on soft-shell shrimp that’ll come from the menu at Mawn — where it’s served with fish sauce caramel, Thai basil, and chili — and “a super fun and buttery caviar program.”

Above all, the emphasis will be on Southeast Asian flavors, which Phila and Rachel say will make Sao stand out in the city’s growing oyster scene. A number of oyster-centric restaurants — like Picnic, Little Water, and Jaffa — have opened within the last year, and Lauren Biederman’s new oyster bar, Tesiny, is setting up shop just blocks away from Sao. “I think what’s really going to set us apart is that it’s totally different food,” Rachel says. “This is going to be raw fish with Southeast Asian flavors. We’re doing a lot of that right now at Mawn as specials every night with crudos, and people are very excited about it.”

Ultimately, Sao’s superpower will be its sauce. “We’ll have oysters, crudo, whole fish, grilled prawns, but with Southeast Asian sauces. It’s not just cocktail sauce or mignonette,” Phila says. The restaurant will have its own version of cocktail sauce, the Kampot black pepper mignonette that’s served with oysters at Mawn, hull sauce (Mawn’s house hot sauce made with jalapeños, green Thai chilis, cilantro, and white vinegar), and more. “These sauces we’re going to introduce Philly to are so slept on,” Phila says. “It’s going to be magnificent.”