Wilson sold the snack business—TJ’s Gourmet Snacks—to Virgil Grimes and Michelle Repka three months ago. The business continues to produce up to 60 cases per week to six Woodman’s Food Market stores and various bars in Janesville, Beloit and Milwaukee.

The path the snack business took to evolve is a testament to the hard work and fortitude of Wilson, who is known as “Mister B” to his many acquaintances.

His family moved to Milwaukee when he was 12. When he came to Beloit, over the years he worked for Fairbanks Morse, Beloit Corporation and Hormel.

He shifted his focus to the limousine and taxicab service. He purchased a limousine and several taxi cabs and serviced both Beloit and Janesville.

“That’s when GM (General Motors) was still going and Yellow Cab was closing up in Janesville,” Wilson said. “I did that for 20 years.”

Rock County then contracted him to provide van services for the elderly and handicapped within the county.

Shortly before the contract with Rock County expired, Wilson became interested in the snack business.

While Wilson was growing up in Mississippi, cracklins were a familiar snack.

Farmers and others would butcher pigs and want to save the fat (lard) to use throughout the year. They would simmer the pig skin in boiling water and the fat would gather on the water surface to be skimmed off for use in cooking.

A little fat would remain on the skin. That could then be fried up and eaten as a snack.

Wilson was in his 40s and living in Beloit when he thought about introducing cracklins in this area.

“I tasted some that they had bagged in Memphis, Tennessee,” Wilson said. “They tasted too much like grease or lard. I didn’t like it.”

When he got back to Beloit, Wilson started experimenting making his own cracklins along with pork rinds. Pork rinds are pork skins without any fat that are deep fried.

He purchased pallets of pork rinds and cracklins and started deep frying them in a section of Mr. B’s Coffee and Ice Cream diner that he owns on the south side of Beloit.

This summer, Grimes and Repka purchased the snack business from Wilson, who was an amputee when he lost his other leg to a second amputation 10 years ago.

Grimes, who was born in Florida and lived in East St. Louis, Illinois before moving to Beloit, ran a snow removal business. Mr. B’s Coffee and Ice Cream was one of his customers. Grimes and Wilson started talking and led to his purchase of TJ’s Gourmet Snacks.

“I always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” Grimes said.

Early this year, Grimes and Repka started working with Wilson to learn the snack-producing business. In October, they took TJ’s Gourmet Snacks, with Wilson still there for any assistance.

Two to three days a week, Grimes coats the cracklins and pork rinds with seasoning he and Repka have developed, deep fries them, and then transfers the finished product to Repka, who bags, seals, and labels the snacks.

Repka works full-time helping disabled people in their homes during evenings.

TJ’s Gourmet snacks, named after Wilson’s first grandson, are available in six Woodman’s stores—three in Madison and the ones in Janesville, Beloit and Rockford.

In addition, 60 to 100 cases of the pork snacks a month are delivered in the Milwaukee area. When he first started making cracklins and pork rinds while in the taxi and limo business, Wilson would load up his taxi on Sundays and drive to Milwaukee to make his deliveries to bars and Mom-and-Pop grocery stores.

The COVID pandemic reduced the number of Milwaukee bars in half, Wilson said, and smaller grocery stores have also become extinct.

“We’re looking to expand,” Grimes said, both in his production operation and sales outlets.

Grimes and Repka are working on more flavors for their pork snacks. Grimes just started producing a smoky bourbon-flavored spice mix for pork rinds that is getting favorable results.

The couple went through three test trials of smoky bourbon mix before getting the taste they wanted. The mixture then had to go through a six-month process to get government clearance to start production.

They now produce hot, mild, siracha and smoky-bourbon pork rinds.

“It’s an expensive process,” Repka said of getting a new flavor mix created. All their products are United States Department of Agriculture-inspected and approved.

“We can sell this product anywhere in the world,” Wilson said. “It can be sold on Amazon, eBay, any of that.”

TJ’s Gourmet Snacks are available on Amazon and eBay. Grimes and Repka are selling some of their product to military bases but are mainly working on developing their market in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois.

The main challenge is to get people to try them.

“When I started this, a lot of people would cook them up and throw them in a bag,” Wilson said of pork rinds. “I started seasoning them. That’s what started it.”

Now Grimes and Repka aim to take it to a higher level.

“Mister B says we have to be patient,” Grimes said.

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