Wicked Local Acton and The Beacon interviewed Joe Loblundo at the Concord Store
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Joe in Concord
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If you’re looking for Joe Loblundo, chances are you will find him at his fish market and restaurant on Church Street in Concord.
Loblundo opened Twin Seafood Market 26 years ago, and for many years he worked seven days a week. He doesn’t work weekends anymore, unless he is called in for a big order, but he hasn’t slowed down at all.
Wearing an apron and a Twin Seafood T-Shirt with “Gut Fish?” on the front, Loblundo was busy in the kitchen, cranking out the seafood dishes for a steady stream of lunch customers.
Stuffed hammerhead sharks and a colorful marlin hang on the walls, and some of the menu is scrawled on a blackboard behind the fish market counter, including “Chowda” written in chalk.
Loblundo, 54, knows his business. His first job was waiting on customers at Fresh Pond Seafood in Cambridge when he was a 15-year-old student at Somerville High School.
“I still enjoy what I do,” Loblundo said.
So does C.J. Ruiz, one of Loblundo’s employees. Ruiz works in the fish market, cooks, handles the cash register and makes trips into Boston to buy the freshest fish.
“I do it all,” Ruiz said.
Loblundo’s wife, Louise, handles the books, and his brother John runs the second Twin Seafood Market location in Acton.
“I let (John) do his thing, and I do mine,” Loblundo said of his brother, who co-owns the business. “It works out better that way.”
Flames shot high off the grill as Loblundo prepared a grilled tuna dinner, and when customer Billy Boland of Concord walked in for lunch, he ordered the lobster salad, after Loblundo told him he’d just made it.