Remembrances at People Who Grew Up in Watchung, NJ Oct 23, 2023 facebook page
More Remembrances at You know you're from WATCHUNG if you remember... Sept 17, 2014 fb page
WATCHUNG - It may not be common knowledge but many people throughout New Jersey grew up on cookies made at the Grigsby Nut Kitchen.
Grigsby's, located at 475 Watchung Ave., (Watchung Tiangle) supplied lunch-time snacks to schools from Atlantic City to Long Island, including Watchung Hills 'Regional High School.
Grigsby's manager Art Wilson is among those who were exposed to the snacks in school. A 1968 graduate of Watchung Hills, he began working at the kitchen at age 16.
"It was good, steady work, the people we worked for were great and one thing led to another," Wilson said.
Through the years, he has worked for Grigsby's as a route salesman and a baker and it was at the kitchen that he met his future wife, the former Karen Jud of Warren.
Last summer, Wilson, Robert Caron of Whitehouse and Robert Mullen bf Scotch Plains pooled resources and bought the business. Wilson now manages a 17-person operation that makes between 60,000 and 80,000 cookies per day.
When he started helping out as a high schooler, the company was still owned by its founder, Clarence Russel Grigsby. Grigsby, Wilson said, had launched the business 65 years ago when he began making cookies on his porch in West Millington.
The business started out as a nut shop in Plainfield, then moved to its present location in 1958 and began to branch out. Today, in addition to making cookies, Grigsby's does distributing work for more than 20 companies such as Wise and Keebler.
The store itself is still "small. It's a street front, but people don't realize how much is actually going on, Wilson said.
Grigsby's makes seven different 'varieties of cookies, including chocoate chip, fudge, oatmeal, spice, peanut butter, sunflower and brittle bits. Nuts are also packaged.
Several of the people who work in business have been hired through the Community Fire Company in Warren, Wilson said. Caron was a member at one time, and Wilson is a current member and former assistant chief.
The people hired through the company have been "excellent employees," he said. They're a great bunch of guys."
Another employee, Ray Nargi of Green Brook, has been with the business for 55 years, he said. Most of the women who work at Grigsby's are from either the borough or North Plainfield, he added.
A lifelong resident of the area, Wilson grew up on Valley View Road in Watchung. After graduating from Watchung Hills, he moved to Mercer Avenue in North Plainfield for nine months before settling on Smalleytown Road in Warren 13 years ago.
The Wilsons have two children, Greg, age 10, and Lara, six.
Despite the success of Grigsby's, Wilson has no intention of turning it into a sprawling conglomerate.
"It's nice to stay small," he said.
School lunch snacks made in local kitchen
An Enviable Position Arthur Wilson, the manager of the Grigsby Nut Kitchen in Watchung, checks out the latest batch of cookies last week. Grigsby's, which supplies lunchtime snacks to schools throughout New Jersey, produces between 60,000 and 80,000 cookies each day
