Wee Man’s Chronic adventure
Wee friends
Wee Man can’t believe his good fortune to be in the midst of such taco bliss. Photo
There is certainly some spiritual bliss to be found within the folds of the al pastor taco at Wee Man’s Chronic Tacos. The shop, which opened two weeks ago on the corner of Torrance Blvd. and Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach, has attracted long lines of people, daily.
It’s been a party. Chronic co-founder Randy Wyner has been behind the counter every day, and Wee Man’s longtime buddy Peterson is enjoying his altogether new role as the manager of a taco shop.
“The response has been like 100 times more than expected, at this point,” Peterson said. “I think it’s a great fit for the South Bay…I love this place, and I’ve always wanted to come back and do something and make it my home again. And here I am, a year and a half later, after this concept came about, and I’m just really happy to be in the South Bay, because this is my heart and my home and my life. And I want to end up here forever.”
Wyner calls the Wee Man iteration of his taco shop concept “Chronic Tacos on steroids.” Wee Man himself was been closely involved in the construction of the shop, which was almost all custom-built by local craftsmen. He even picked the paint colors, a decision that took all of two minutes.
“I mean, building this restaurant, for anybody else it would have been a chore, but he makes it fun,” Peterson said. “He comes in, ‘What are we doing for paint?’ The painter comes in, lays out all this paint, and Jason is like, ‘This one here, this one here…’ Two minutes, picks out the paint, and it comes out killer. It’s just so fun. Bam, bam, and it works out perfect. The guy just has a sense that goes bam, just like that. Simplicity.”
Wee Man also made sure they secured a billboard across the street.
“I said, ‘Man, we have visibility from three-fourths of the intersection, but we don’t have it going north on PCH.’ And I looked across the street and said, ‘I want that billboard.’ Our real estate guy said I’ll call and see what it takes and we now have it secured for five years. So we are going to have fun with it…I want to put up the employee of the month on the billboard, customer of the month. I want to do anything we can just to make it fun.”
And given the initial success of Wee Man’s Chronic Tacos, there is a good possibility the brand will spread elsewhere in the South Bay and throughout Los Angeles County. Wee Man, as always, is just going with the flow.
“I never once thought I was going to be a restaurant owner, and it’s funny, because I’ve always known you just have to be happy in life,” he said. “It doesn’t matter – income doesn’t matter, whatever, anything, as long as you are happy. Even when I was working at ET, I just decided as long as I have enough money in my pocket to eat like once a day and I get to do what I want – I get to skateboard, I get to hang out with my buddies – I’m happy. I mean, I never set out and said this is what I’m going to do at this age, this is what I’m going to do at that age. I just kind of rolled with the flow and things just happened, success with all the movies, skateboarding all around the world, and now this. Who knows?”
His father, George, who now lives in Arizona and works as a building inspector, has watched Wee Man’s success with pride.
“I share it with everybody,” he said. “Everybody here in Arizona knows about Wee Man. He’s my son, and he’s a lot to brag about.”
Wee Man has also become the big man in the family. He has a brother and two sisters, all younger, who have likewise looked on with amazement at all their brother has accomplished.
“He’s older than all of them, and I told him he’s got to take care of his family, and he does, without question,” his father said. “He is there for all of us.”
George Acuña said that one day last year he and Wee Man had a heart-to-heart talk.
“He said, ‘I think I know what I am here for, Dad: to make people happy. And that is what I am going to do,’” Acuña recalled. “And I said, ‘That is what you’ve been doing, son.’”