They met at a bowling party, said Ray. Soon after, they both had jobs at Grinder's 13 on 17th South and State. They bought one of the Grinder's 13 shops and ran it together for a while; then owned and operated a Wienerschnitzel in California before opening East Coast Subs.

When asked if, as implied in the "No Reservations" movie, sparks ever fly in the kitchen between them, she said, "In our case it's more like the flour flying, because we still make my mom's homemade recipe for onion rings, and we bread them every morning. There's flour in the air, and it's messy."

As far as specialties go, "I'd be the Onion Ring Queen," said Carla. "Ray is the Philly Cheesesteak Man. His customers will tell you he's famous for it."

Ray admits that working together in the same profession is "hard sometimes, but she's my best friend, too, so that helps."

"We've done this for so long that we know what not to do to irritate the other," said Carla.

One advantage she said, is the amount of time they've been able to spend together. "In the restaurant business, you're at your business a lot of hours of your life, you have to be there to be successful. We're here together, and our kids who are 14 and 18 come in and work with us.

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E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com