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Steve Karfaridis, the first manager of Wahoo's second location, in Laguna Beach, is now a partner in the business.

The first restaurant was funded in part with US$30,000 the brothers received from their parents after selling Shanghai Pine Gardens. Wing Lam recounted in 2011 that "back in the day, I took your order, ran to the kitchen, made it and delivered it to your table." The three brothers remain involved in daily operations, with Wing Lam staffing the chain's California-based food truck. The three brothers (youngest of the five sons) were the main restaurant employees. The first Wahoo's Fish Taco restaurant, located at 1862 Placentia Avenue in Costa Mesa, opened in November 1988, serving Baja California-style fish tacos. Based on their experience working long hours at Shanghai Pine Gardens, the parents insisted that their five children should study medicine, law, or engineering the eldest brother went to law school, the second brother studied medicine, and the third brother (Wing Lam) attended San Diego State University, initially studying engineering, but switching to finance after being placed on academic probation. Their father, Cheong Lee, and the eldest brother came to the United States in 1964, and the rest of the family arrived in 1975, opening the Shanghai Pine Gardens restaurant on Balboa Island.

Their parents had fled to Brazil in the 1950s following the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War, and settled in São Paulo, opening a Chinese restaurant their five sons were all born in Brazil. Wahoo's was founded in Costa Mesa, California, in 1988 by Chinese- Brazilian brothers Eduardo "Ed" Lee, Renato "Mingo" Lee and Wing Lam, who mixed traditional Chinese and Brazilian flavors with dishes they encountered while traveling in Mexico.

Wahoo's Fish Taco sign in Orange, California