The front of Country Club Bakery

Country Club Bakery is a bakery located in Fairmont, West Virginia, which is where the pepperoni roll originated. The bakery is currently located on Country Club Road.[1] The pepperoni roll is a snack popular in West Virginia and some nearby regions of the Appalachian Mountains.[2]

Because of the pepperoni's roll's origins in the town, Fairmont has dubbed itself the "pepperoni roll capital of the world".[3] In 2020, in honor of the store and snack's legacy, a marker was put up in Fairmont that states, “West Virginia delicacy created by Italian families in Fairmont to feed local coal miners. Variants now popular statewide.”[4]

History

The original location where the pepperoni roll was invented is on Robinson Street, Fairmont.[5] The store was opened up and the snack was invented by immigrant baker Giuseppe Argiro some time around the 1910s or 1930s.[6][7][8]

The rolls originated as a lunch option for West Virginia coal miners in the first half of the twentieth century. A large number of Italian immigrants moved to North Central West Virginia looking for work in coal mining jobs. The pepperoni roll was a convenient snack that didn't spoil for the workers to eat.[9]

The pepperoni roll bears a resemblance to the pasty and sausage roll, which originated in the mining communities of Great Britain, as well as to the Italian calzone. These foods and the pepperoni shared a similar purpose; they allowed a miner on a break from a tiring and dirty job to eat a full meal with less problem.

References

  1. ↑ "COUNTRY CLUB BAKERY – Holly Eats". www.hollyeats.com.
  2. ↑ Edge, John T. (2009-09-29). "Fast Food Even Before Fast Food". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  3. ↑ Smith, Vicki (28 March 2004). "Meaty Snack Puts W.Va. Town on the Map". The Washington Post. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  4. ↑ Virginian, Scott Gillespie | Times West. "Fairmont's pepperoni roll legacy now enshrined". Times West Virginian. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  5. ↑ "The Pepperoni Roll – State Food of West Virginia". www.wvculture.org. West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture & History. Archived from the original on March 1, 2019.
  6. ↑ Dean, Josh (16 April 2013). "West Virginia's Iconic Fish Roll Is Finally Getting Some Official Recognition". Bon Appetit. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  7. ↑ Mistich, Roxy Todd, Dave (28 July 2015). "Update: Sheetz to Keep W.Va. Pepperoni Rolls, But Wants Just One Bakery". www.wvpublic.org. Archived from the original on 2020-09-20. Retrieved 2020-09-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Walker, Chelsea. "Country Club Bakery: Home of the pepperoni roll". The Daily Athenaeum - thedaonline. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  9. ↑ Watch Sunday Morning: chicken rolls, the pride of West Virginia - Full show on CBS All Access, retrieved 2020-09-10

39°28′18″N 80°10′14″W / 39.47167°N 80.17049°W / 39.47167; -80.17049

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