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Editor’s Note: Brothers Wing Lam, Ed Lee and Mingo Lee opened the first Wahoo’s Fish Taco location in Costa Mesa in 1988. The Tustin-based restaurant chain has more than 40 locations throughout California, Texas, Nevada and Japan. Ed Lee is also the founder of Toast Kitchen & Bakery in Tustin. Lam, a tireless marketer, is the co-founder of the nonprofit California Love Drop, which recently ferried fresh meals and beverages to Los Angeles fire victims and first-responders. Mingo is the chief executive of Wahoo’s. For the Business Journal’s annual list of restaurant chains, see page 25.
The success of our surf- and skate-themed restaurant chain, Wahoo’s Fish Taco, can be traced back – oddly enough – to our dad’s chance encounter with Hollywood legend John Wayne.
His journey to Orange County is a story of perseverance blended with a bit of luck.
Cheong Kwon Lee came to Southern California by way of Brazil in the late 1960s to pursue the American dream. He ended up in one of the most remote spots of Orange County: Balboa Island. There, he launched our family restaurant, Shanghai Pine Gardens.
It’s where we first learned, often reluctantly, the value of hard work.
It’s also where we learned the business of restaurants, especially the importance of word-of-mouth marketing.
From Japan to Brazil to the U.S
Our dad, who learned how to cook at a young age, fled China after World War II. He bounced around from Hong Kong to Japan, with the goal of eventually reaching America. While living in Japan, he became a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Tokyo. One day, he heard about a ship departing for “America.”
So, he caught the boat but wound up in South America—specifically Brazil. Our mother later joined him in Brazil, where the three of us were born.
Our parents opened a Chinese restaurant in a small village outside São Paulo. But dad still dreamed of a life in the U.S., so he and our older brother, Bismark, traveled to California in the late 1960s.
They never returned.
In Brazil, we thrived as the only Chinese restaurant in a small-town village. Inspired by that, our mom encouraged dad to find a place in Orange County that was nowhere near any other Chinese restaurant.
After working for a few years as a cook in Anaheim, dad bought in 1971 the old Olamendi’s restaurant on Marine Avenue on Balboa Island.
It was a huge risk.
He invested the family’s saving, roughly $90,000, to buy that corner building.
A Chance Encounter with John Wayne
The restaurant was doing okay but not great.
Dad and Bismark were running it while the rest of us remained in Brazil. The menu featured Kung Pao Chicken, paper-wrapped chicken, Egg Foo Young, Moo Shu Pork and Peking duck. The latter dish drew a bit of controversy, at first, as some neighbors thought he was serving ducks fetched from the local bay.
He wasn’t.
Then came a serendipitous moment that changed all of our lives—and ultimately influenced how we would later run Wahoo’s.
In 1973, local publicist Gloria Zigner held a private party at the restaurant to celebrate her husband’s birthday. She represented John Wayne’s wife, Pilar, who attended the event. When John Wayne, who lived in Newport Beach, arrived to pick up his wife, he ended up taking a photo with our dad.
Soon, word spread around Orange County that John Wayne had celebrated his birthday at his favorite restaurant.
No one ever corrected the story, so the myth became the legend.
If social media had existed back then, this photo would’ve gone viral.
That image of my dad standing next to John Wayne turned our lives around.
Almost overnight, the restaurant became one of the hottest tables in town. Lines wrapped around the building.
Needing more help, dad sent for the rest of the family. We moved to Orange County to help him run the restaurant.
Surfing and Baja Food Gives Birth to Wahoo’s
Our childhood was filled with the flavors of the places our family had come from, where we had lived, and where we had played.
Growing up in and around Newport Beach, surfing became an important part of our lives, especially for Ed, who spent his youth working (and sometimes getting fired) from local surf and apparel firms like Stüssy, Schroff Surfboards, Newport Surf & Sport and McCoy Surf Designs.
We spent many days catching waves at the 32nd Street Jetty and lots of weekends surfing in Baja California. There, we developed a love for fish tacos. They hit the spot after a morning of surfing off Rosarito Beach in Mexico.
These experiences gave birth to Wahoo’s Fish Taco, which we opened in 1988. We named the company after the Wahoo, a fish Mingo caught while in Hawaii.
Our vision was simple—bring indoors the taco cart flavors we loved in Mexico.
Since Wahoo’s was born out of our love for surfing, it made sense to attach ourselves to the surf industry. That’s why we opened our first store in Costa Mesa, the birthplace of several major action sports brands like Hurley and Volcom. Billabong’s U.S. base was also here.
One day Billabong asked us if we catered. We had no idea how to cater, but we said yes.
Next thing you know, we’re catering for all the major brands at skateboarding and surfing events where rising stars were born such as Tony Hawk and snowboarding icon Shaun White (who began his career as a local skateboarder in Carlsbad).
In our first year, four former world surf champions were spotted dining at our Laguna Beach restaurant during one single evening. At that point, we said, “We’re in.”
Those brands and athletes ended up being our John Wayne.
Like dad’s restaurant, we became a sensation.
Ever-Evolving in a Tough Industry
At our peak, we had over 70 restaurants.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit us hard and forced the closure of many locations. Today, we operate over 40 Wahoo’s restaurants across California, Las Vegas, Texas and Japan.
Wing’s tireless marketing efforts—and his deep ties to the foodservice and music worlds—have helped keep the brand in the spotlight, as well as his work with California Love Drop, a nonprofit he co-founded during the pandemic to bring food relief to those in need.
Ming keeps the doors open as CEO. And Ed continues to dream big, always exploring new restaurant ventures such as Toast Kitchen & Bakery in Tustin, while working to evolve Wahoo’s.
We’re looking to grow Wahoo’s again through franchising with a focus on building stores with smaller dining rooms—a nod to today’s demand for delivery and takeout. Later this year, we’re opening a location at John Wayne Airport. We’re also thinking about trimming the menu—returning to our original menu and offering more specials.
For us, 2025 is all about cleaning up our act and revamping stores.
We’re taking it slow.
And to anyone starting out in the restaurant industry right now, our advice is: sit tight, wait until after July, and see where the economy goes before making big moves.
Most importantly, whatever the economy looks like, always find your John Wayne.