Knuckleheads: A Fisherman’s ‘Safe Haven’

Lifelong New Bedford resident Andrew Bois found passion in serving his community through safety and scallops.

For the last 30 of his 55 years, Bois has been working as a New Bedford firefighter. In 2012, he began managing one of the city’s most popular bar restaurants: Knuckleheads.

“We have a lot of people that work in and own fish houses,” Bois said. “They come here in the morning, drink their coffee, talk shop and go off on their way. We get the fishermen with their slickers on who just got off their boats; they want to get something to eat or drink. They’ve just been on a boat for 16 days, so they want to tear it up a little bit. We’re known for the place to go.”

Throughout 19 years of business, Knuckleheads has built a solid reputation in New Bedford. Connections to the fishing industry have saved the establishment from the severity of increasing seafood product prices.

“We get good prices, because they know we buy volume off of them,” Bois said. “We’re a high-volume restaurant. Every day, we’re open from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m., and there’s always people here. We have good connections from dealing with these people for many years.”

While simultaneously targeting affordability and quality, Knuckleheads serves unsoaked scallops, the natural form that is untreated with phosphates. Recent foreign competition has caused high-caliber scallops to be impractical at any level restaurant.

“They know they can get so much per pound over there, so the price around here has gone up,” Bois said. “We used to get scallops for $5 per pound. Now, those same scallops probably cost about $15 to $20 per pound.”

Some of the relationships Bois has made within the commercial fishing industry have been cut short, due to harsh working conditions.

“It’s a tough job,” Bois said. “I’ve lost a lot of friends whose boats have capsized out there. They’re 200 miles out. If the boat takes on water, they’re in trouble. I work for the fire department, so if I’m in trouble, I know I have my guys right there that will be able to save me. When they’re out on a fishing boat, they have to wait for the Coast Guard to get there. It’s a very tough life.”

While much of Bois’ circle consists of boat captains and seafood company owners, he describes the modern New Bedford community as a “melting pot” of people. As years have passed by, the city of just over 100,000 citizens has diversified as people from different cultures decided to call it home.

“We have different nationalities and cultures,” Bois said. “We have different foods — Italian, steak and seafood, Portuguese and Mexican — we have a lot of mom-and-pop shops. I’d rather go there than to a big chain establishment, because I want to support local. That’s very important to keep these places running. I want to see these places stay open.”