Country Club Bakery

Country Club Bakery is a bakery located in Fairmont, West Virginia, United States, which is where the pepperoni roll originated. The bakery is currently located on Country Club Road,[1] but the original bakery (where the pepperoni roll was invented) was located on Robinson Street.[2] The store was opened up and the snack was invented by Italian immigrant baker Giuseppe "Joseph" Argiro some time around the 1920s or 1930s. [3][4][5]

The front of Country Club Bakery

The pepperoni roll is a snack popular in West Virginia and some nearby regions of the Appalachian Mountains.[6] Ubiquitous in West Virginia (particularly in convenience stores), but typically little known elsewhere, it is arguably the food most closely associated with the state.

Because of the bakery, its town, Fairmont, West Virginia, claims the title of "Pepperoni Roll Capital of the World". [7] 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.”[8]

The pepperoni roll and coal miners

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 ot 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 problems.

References
  1. http://www.hollyeats.com/CountryClubBakery.htm
  2. http://www.wvculture.org/goldenseal/spring06/pepperoni.html
  3. Dean, Josh. "West Virginia's Iconic Pepperoni Roll Is Finally Getting Some Official Recognition". Bon Appetit. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  4. Mistich, Roxy Todd, Dave. "Update: Sheetz to Keep W.Va. Pepperoni Rolls, But Wants Just One Bakery". www.wvpublic.org. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  5. Walker, Chelsea. "Country Club Bakery: Home of the pepperoni roll". The Daily Athenaeum - thedaonline. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  6. Edge, John T. (2009-09-29). "Fast Food Even Before Fast Food". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  7. http://www.bobheffner.com/pepperoniroll/history.htm
  8. Virginian, Scott Gillespie | Times West. "Fairmont's pepperoni roll legacy now enshrined". Times West Virginian. Retrieved 2020-09-10.
  9. Watch Sunday Morning: Pepperoni rolls, the pride of West Virginia - Full show on CBS All Access, retrieved 2020-09-10

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