{"id":502928,"date":"2026-01-09T04:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/502928\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T04:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T04:27:14","slug":"how-not-to-get-a-reservation-at-mawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/502928\/","title":{"rendered":"How NOT to Get a Reservation at Mawn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNews<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

One scalper thought they’d hit the reservation jackpot \u2014 until Phila and Rachel Lorn found out.<\/p>\n

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Mawn\u2019s 32-seat dining room \/ Photograph by Michael Persico, originally published in A Noodle House With No Rules Is Exactly What Philly Needs Right Now<\/a><\/p>\n

The drama started on New Year\u2019s Day, inside the cloistered walls of the private Facebook group PHILAQUEENS. Reservations for Mawn<\/a>, one of the most in-demand restaurants in the city, went live at noon, and from what I understand, every single reservation was snapped up and gone by 12:02 p.m.<\/p>\n

One user had gotten lucky (maybe) or gamed the system (maybe), and had come away with some seats. And on the PHILAQUEENS \u201cBuy, Sell & Trade\u201d page, they were trying to sell them to the highest bidder. That\u2019s bad. But trust me, it gets worse.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t just have\u00a0one reservation. They had multiple on the books \u2014 11 to be exact. For January and February seatings. And\u00a0all of them were for sale to the tune of $75 a pop, according to a source in the Facebook group.<\/p>\n

In case you don\u2019t know, a seat at Mawn is probably the most coveted thing in this city right now. Alongside scoring a spot at Jesse Ito\u2019s omakase counter at Royal Sushi & Izakaya, it is one of the hardest seats to get. And having seen and experienced the Mawn reservations system first-hand, I\u2019m not even sure how anyone could score 11, outside of sorcery, or being granted 11 wishes by some kind of Italian Market dumpster genie.<\/p>\n

The post quickly lit up on social media, ending up on Reddit, and several people reached out directly to the restaurant to let them know what was going on. So when owners Phila and Rachel Lorn heard about this reservation scalping, they knew they \u00a0had to do something.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it happens,\u201d Rachel told me when I talked to her yesterday. \u201cBut we don\u2019t monitor it so we only know if someone tells us.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this time, lots of people did.<\/p>\n

Rachel again:\u00a0\u201cThis is the first time we were made aware by several people sending us the Facebook thread. We felt like we had to make it known [that this is] not okay, and disrespectful to us and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rachel Lorn reviewing Mawn\u2019s dinner reservations \/ Photograph by Chlo\u00e9 Pantazi-Wolber<\/p>\n

I talked to Rachel because she\u2019s in charge of the book. She runs Mawn\u2019s front-of-house, keeps the lists at lunch every day of those who make it in for a meal and those who get turned away, and keeps track of the reservations at dinner. She knows how hard it is to get a table at her restaurant. She knows how long some people have to wait. And it infuriates her when people try to game the system for their own benefit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were sent several messages yesterday by different people \u2014 strangers \u2014 with screenshots showing us that this was happening,\u201d she said. \u201cWe felt like we had a responsibility to respond. It was really important to us that everyone sees we are not wit\u2019 that.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they went into the reservation system, found the person who was doing the selling, and immediately cancelled all 11 reservations.<\/p>\n

And then Mawn let everyone know that they weren\u2019t about to let someone play them like that<\/a>. They posted the original sale offer online, along with their response, in the hope that a little public shaming might put the lid on this kind of nonsense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are inundated daily with people who are mad about not being able to get reservations,\u201d Rachel told me. \u201cThe truth is, the size [of the restaurant] and demand [for reservations] do not match, but then if, on top of that, some people have somehow figured out how to get multiple reservations from our already small inventory, and then they are trying to sell them \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s shitty is the end of that sentence. My words, not Rachel\u2019s. But still true. You do something like that, that\u2019s shitty. That\u2019s cheating to take reservations away from people who are trying to play fair, and doing it for your own financial benefit.<\/p>\n

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Phila Lorn glancing at the guest list \/ Photograph by Stevie Chris, originally published in Phila and Rachel Lorn\u2019s Trick to Success? Desperation<\/a><\/p>\n

The reservation landscape in Philly right now is already pretty grim. Getting a prime-time seat almost anywhere now seems to involve a level of scheming and guile that makes Ticketmaster seem like an ethical, well-run system. And none of that is likely going to get better any time soon.<\/p>\n

Yes, city council recently passed a ban on \u201creservation scalping\u201d<\/a> that would make the practice illegal, but the problem is really more an economic and psychological one.<\/p>\n

With Philly\u2019s newfound hotness as a restaurant city and news of big openings from scores of serious operators (both local and not so) dominating the dining discourse<\/a>, no one wants to feel like they\u2019re being left out of the fun. No one wants to be the last person to see what everyone is talking about. Like TV series, restaurants have now become something that we all feel like we have to binge just so that we can have an opinion on what\u2019s happening and what\u2019s coming next. And in that kind of environment, reservations become a kind of currency \u2014 their value increasing with every additional diner who\u2019s willing to do almost anything for a seat.<\/p>\n

And Mawn? It\u2019s just ground-zero for this kind of thing right now.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small, 32-seat neighborhood joint, open just four days a week, with only a handful of dedicated staff. Every seat in the place is full, every seating of every day.<\/p>\n

And the team does their best to make the experience special for everyone who comes through their doors. They want every night to feel like a dinner party \u2014 small, intimate, a little bit too loud and full of friends and neighbors. They are all about the block, the community, and Philly, as eloquently described by Phila in his James Beard acceptance speech from a few months back<\/a>. And, honestly, a meal there is one of those that can stick in your memory for decades<\/a> and make you rethink what you love about restaurants in the first place. So it\u2019s no wonder a month\u2019s worth of reservations get booked within two minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t control bots,\u201d Rachel explained, \u201cor people that are more tech savvy. But for anyone abusing it, there is consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like getting all those reservations cancelled. Publicly<\/a>. And having everyone in the city who has ever been turned away at the door pissed at you for trying to game the system for your benefit, at the cost of fans and neighbors who are trying to act right.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people need to be reminded that we are a small family business,\u201d Rachel said. \u201cWe are not part of a big company. This kind of exploitation is just disrespectful to us and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n