Reggie Wise has been on a healing journey since he was a child born on the wrong side of Geneva Avenue in 1965.
“My name technically means ‘King Wise’ — kind of a little bit to live up to, but that’s OK, I’m gettin’ there,” Wise says, with a raspy cackle.
Any day of the week, people walking 21st Street will pass by Wise, soaking in the sun on a chair in front of his shop. The Sun Spot is a small storefront between Mission and Capp streets specializing in CBD products for healing whatever ails you — be it physical, mental or emotional.
“I’ve always been into health. Even as a kid, I was into yoga,” says Wise. “I was highly stressed as a kid, and — I took this too literal — but, my mom said, ‘You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack,’” Wise laughs. “‘You need to calm the fuck down!’”
Wise may have been high-strung in his youth, but these days, he’s a calming presence just feet away from the chaos of Mission Street. Passersby young and old duck in to greet him every few minutes, and a revolving door of loyal customers keeps him busy.
“Just by virtue of being in Frisco,” he says, “you get into herb. I’ve believed in the healing properties and all that since way before it was legal.”
“Everyone doesn’t want to be high, but everyone wants to be healthy,” quips Wise. “We’re for people who just want to sleep well, or who have a job with certain limitations and don’t want the high. A lot of people in recovery — for drugs or anything — want something for pain that isn’t an opioid.”
Pain is Wise’s game. His first shop was The Sacred Space, a yoga and massage studio on Haight Street in the ‘90s. Then, he worked in recovery at Walden House, going on to found a clinic in Oakland centering women and their children. Now, it’s all CBD, all day.
As an energetic kid, Wise was all over the city, often on a BMX bike. On most weekends, he and other mischief-makers growing up in Visitacion Valley would sneak into the Cow Palace to see shows.
“There was a back way all the kids in the neighborhood knew. I saw so much — AC/DC, Van Halen, Rush. The circus, rodeos.” All for free.
“Way back in the day for the circus, the Ringling Brothers had a train and would march the animals up Geneva. If you timed it right, you’d see elephants, lions, tigers all walking up the street, marching up to the Cow Palace.”
Wise went to high school at St. Ignatius in the Sunset, taking the 29-Sunset out from Visitacion Valley. St. Ignatius was “a lot of wealthy kids with a lot of really good drugs — mushrooms, cocaine. They had access to everything,” said Wise. “You could say I learned a lot there.”
In high school, Wise mingled with everyone. “You know those movies, where there’s these groups — I was that dude that hung with all the cliques.”
“I even was cool with the WPODs — white punks on dope. They would have bonfires at Ocean Beach. Their trip was, they’d go to the beach, get drunk and then brawl with each other. But they had the best mushrooms.” Wise chuckles, happily remembering beach days on mushrooms.
“The hippies had the best weed, of course. And there were those cool, kind of nerdy guys who listened to the Beach Boys and surfed, typical California types, we’d all hang out.”
When he turned 18, he graduated to motorcycles, getting a Harley and joining Oakland’s Iron Souls Motorcycle Club, whose members are mostly Black and Latinx.
Being a Black biker came with its own adventures. Wise recounted a run-in with a truck of white men up in Shasta County. His friends took it on in their own style. One close friend was a Jamaican biker called Ras Zulu, known to many as “Black Hitler.”
“This could only happen in San Francisco,” said Wise. “The whole thing was to mess with people. He’d shave his mustache down into a little strip and walk around the city in a Nazi uniform.”
Angering rednecks, said Wise, was a pastime of Zulu’s.
“One day, he rides his motorcycle up to McKinleyville, which is known Klan territory, wearing a whole Nazi uniform.” Wise can barely get through a sentence, barely holding back giggles.
“Zulu goose-steps up into some bar and orders a drink. Mind you, he’s got a Jamaican accent. Whole bar goes quiet. Some white dude shoulder-checks him once, then twice. Then Zulu lays him out.”
“So a white boy comes up to him and says: ‘You need to leave now.’ Zulu turned to him in his best American accent and said: ‘Sir, under the constitution and articles such and such and so and forth and what the what …’ and says something about his legal right.”
“And the white boy just looked at him and said: ‘Uh-huh. Yeah, you definitely need to leave now.””
“Zulu said he finished his drink, goose-stepped out the bar and got on his motorcycle as fast as he could and got out of that town.”
The friends collapse into laughter.
The Sun Spot is open Monday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m, at 3186 21st St., San Francisco, CA 94110.
Reggie is a really cool dude . I got some great CBD salve from him that really helped with some knee pain . Thanks Reggie ! Cool article Griffin !