❝Story02:30
How Mexico Surf Trips Inspired Wahoo's Fish Tacos
Lam traces the restaurant concept to California surfers crossing into Mexico, getting hungry after surfing, and eating fish tacos along the beach. The opportunity was obvious to customers but unattractive to operators: people loved eating the tacos, while few wanted to make them locally.
- Early surf trips from California often went across the Mexican border
- Fish tacos were common food along the beach
- Surfers wanted the same food back home
- The concept addressed a product people liked but restaurants were not offering
“what happens when you surf you get hungry and what you eat along the beach is mostly these fish tacos”
“everybody loves to eat them nobody wants to make them”
#restaurant-origin#fish-tacos#surfing#mexico
❝Story03:00
Why the Brothers Chose the Name Wahoo's
After considering many fish names, Lam's brother Mingo returned from Hawaii with the word 'ono,' meaning delicious. Concern that people could pronounce it as 'oh no' led them to the alternate name Wahoo, which immediately worked as Wahoo's Fish Taco.
- The brothers wanted the restaurant to be named after a fish
- Mingo suggested the Hawaiian word 'ono' after attending a wedding
- A possible 'oh no' pronunciation made the name risky
- Wahoo was presented as the other word for Ono and fit the restaurant name
“what about we call it onos which is Hawaiian for everything's delicious”
“oh my God Wah's fish taco what a great name”
#naming#branding#hawaii#wahoo
❝Story10:00
Wahoo's Lost 85% of Its Business in Two Days
When California announced pandemic shutdowns, Lam says most people missed the footnote allowing restaurants to remain open. Wahoo's lost 85% of its business and staff, leaving stores that normally scheduled 15 to 20 people operating with a cashier, server, and cook; Los Angeles unrest then added pressure to locations there.
- California announced the shutdown on Wednesday for Friday
- Lam says 85% of restaurant business disappeared within those two days
- The company also lost 85% of its staff
- A normal 15-to-20-person shift fell to three people
- Most of the locations ultimately lost were in Los Angeles
“two days 85% of our business disappeared”
“most restaurant had a cashier a server and a cook three people that normally would had like 15 20 on a shift”
#covid#restaurants#crisis#staffing
❝Story16:30
Three Brothers Built Wahoo's After Rejecting Corporate Careers
Lam's parents wanted their sons to earn degrees and obtain conventional professional jobs. Wing found structured corporate engineering work too restrictive, then he and Ed borrowed money from their parents to open a Costa Mesa restaurant; Mingo later joined, and additional locations gave each brother enough work and income.
- Lam's parents already operated the Shanghai Pine Garden restaurant
- His older brothers became an attorney and a doctor
- Wing worked on the space shuttle after college but disliked corporate structure
- Wing and Ed wrote their restaurant idea on a napkin and borrowed from their parents
- One location could not support two people, which prompted expansion to a second and then third
“we literally wrote everything on a napkin”
“literally no plan other than to have a place that we he and I could go to work”
#founding-story#family-business#immigration#entrepreneurship
❝Story22:00
A National Commercial Gave 13-Store Wahoo's a Massive Marketing Break
Thirteen years after the business began, Wahoo's was selected from hundreds of applicants for a national small-business commercial. The brothers' story of Chinese immigrants serving Mexican food shaped the campaign's American Dream theme, and Lam says Wahoo's received more than half of the campaign budget and aired almost nightly for a year.
- A broker connected to Mingo saw a request for interesting minority-owned clients
- About 30 of more than 650 applicants advanced to phone interviews
- Six businesses were ultimately selected
- The brothers and their parents appeared in the commercial
- Lam estimates the exposure represented more than $60 million in marketing
“where else in the world can a Chinese guy sell Mexican food this is your American dream”
“out of the 30 six got picked of the six we ended up with over a half of the campaign's budget”
#advertising#american-dream#brand-growth#media
❝Story48:00
Why Personal Losses Matter More to Lam Than Market Collapses
Lam identifies the unexpected death of his oldest brother in a car accident as a hardship that changed many things. He contrasts irreversible personal loss with recessions, market collapses, and business crises that were painful but could eventually be overcome.
- Lam's oldest brother, the attorney, died in a car accident about ten years into the business
- The death was unexpected rather than age-related
- Lam says the company survived recessions, the internet boom, and real-estate disruption
- Calls beginning with 'did you hear' now make him fear news that someone has died
- He had recently learned that a motorcyclist he knew was killed by a tire crossing the freeway
“my oldest brother passed away you know about 10 years into the business”
“all the economic stuff we've seen all the recessions the you all these crazy you know uh Market collapse the internet boom the real estate…”
#grief#family#hardship#perspective
❝Story51:00
An Unwanted Auction Lot Opened a Global Sports Network
At a Tony Hawk charity auction, Lam made the opening bid on an unfamiliar two-night Abu Dhabi sports-awards trip and unexpectedly won it. The event introduced him to elite international athletes, gave him the setting to propose to his future wife, and led to two more trips and a friendship with childhood Formula 1 hero Emerson Fittipaldi.
- The auction benefited work building skate parks around the country
- Lam initially knew little about Abu Dhabi or the unnamed event
- Tony Hawk had donated his ambassador tickets
- Lam describes the ceremony as a worldwide version of the Oscars for sports
- Kelly Slater won after his tenth world title
- Lam later attended events in England and Malaysia
“opening bid I open my hand nobody else bids on this thing so I ended up winning”
“we met amazing athletes”
#auction#sports#relationships#abu-dhabi