Country Club Bakery is a

bakery A bakery is an establishment that produces and sells flour-based food baked in an oven such as bread, cookies, cakes, donuts, pastries, and pies. Some retail bakeries are also categorized as cafés, serving coffee and tea to customers who ...

located in

Fairmont, West Virginia Fairmont is a city in and county seat of Marion County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 18,313 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Fairmont Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Marion County, a ...

, which is where the

pepperoni roll The pepperoni roll is an Italian-American cuisine, Italian-American stuffed bread roll. Originally conceived of as a coal miner's lunch, it is popular in West Virginia and some nearby regions of the Appalachian Mountains such as Eastern Kentucky ...

originated. The bakery is currently located on Country Club Road. The pepperoni roll is a

snack A snack is a small portion of food generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home. Traditionally, snacks are p ...

popular in

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

and some nearby regions of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. Because of the pepperoni's roll's origins in the town, Fairmont has dubbed itself the "pepperoni roll capital of the world". 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.”

History

The original location where the pepperoni roll was invented is on Robinson Street, Fairmont. The store was opened up and the

was invented by immigrant baker Giuseppe Argiro some time around the 1910s or 1930s. The rolls originated as a lunch option for West Virginia

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

rs in the first half of the twentieth century. A large number of Italian immigrants moved to

North Central West Virginia North Central West Virginia (sometimes known as "Mountaineer Country") is a region of the U.S. state of West Virginia. The region's largest city is Morgantown. Counties * Monongalia County * Marion County * Harrison County * Taylor County *Dod ...

looking for work in

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

jobs. The pepperoni roll was a convenient snack that didn't spoil for the workers to eat. The pepperoni roll bears a resemblance to the

pasty A pasty () is a British baked pastry, a traditional variety of which is particularly associated with Cornwall, South West England, but has spread all over the British Isles. It is made by placing an uncooked filling, typically meat and vegetab ...

and

sausage roll A sausage roll is a savoury pastry snack, popular in current and former Commonwealth nations, consisting of sausage meat wrapped in puffed pastry. Sausage rolls are sold at retail outlets and are also available from bakeries as a take-away food. ...

, which originated in the mining communities of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, as well as to the Italian

calzone A calzone (, , ; "stocking" or "trouser") is an Italian oven-baked folded pizza, often described as a turnover, made with leavened dough. It originated in Naples in the 18th century. A typical calzone is made from salted bread dough, baked in ...

. 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

External links

Bob Heffner's Pepperoni Roll page
based in Fairmont.

from cooks.com.
Pepperoni Roll locations in West Virginia
History of the pepperoni roll and locations to purchase a pepperoni roll in West Virginia.
D'Annunzio's Bakery
D'Annunzios Bakery operated by 3rd generation baker from West Virginia sells original Pepperoni Rolls online

Roger and Mazzas Bakery {{coord, 39.47167, -80.17049, type:city_region:US, format=dms, display=title Bakeries of the United States Companies based in West Virginia Fairmont, West Virginia