pepperoni rolls

    Pepperoni rolls are a west Virginia staple, I've never met anybody who doesn't love them! Well, not any west Virginians anyway. You see them everywhere here in WV, in stores, restaurants, I even remember them being served at school for lunch. Pepperoni rolls originated in Fairmont, wv. I think that much is fairly common knowledge but it wasn't until this past August (2022) that  I was able to pinpoint exactly where. It's a place called country club bakery.  I was in Fairmont on a little outing with my mom and dad, when my dad, whose from the Fairmont area, happened to mention it and I was like "I gotta see it!".

     It didn't take much research to figure out this place was the real deal. The first pepperoni roll was sold here in 1927 by a guy named Giuseppe "Joseph" Argiro. The pepperoni rolls were intended to be a quick lunch for coal miners. The Italian-american treat caught on and now the things are ubiquitous around WV all these years later.
According to wvtourism.com Giuseppe came to America to work in a WV coal mine but switched careers and opened a bakery in Fairmont. He remembered how the miners would have bread in one hand and pepperoni in the other so he thought, why not combine the two? This was the first commercialy sold pepperoni roll but I'm sure the wives of the miners probably had the idea first.
     Now most of the pepperoni rolls I've had have had cheese in them but it sounds like that a modern addition to the pepperoni roll, I've also had them with peppers mmm. It sounds like the original ones were just sticks of pepperoni in a roll (nowadays slices of pepperoni are also used).


     There's a lot of Italian influence in West Virginia, especially in the northern half of the state, mainly because of the coal mines and railroads that attracted Italian Immigrants  in the early 20th century, that's why Italian food is a pretty big deal.

     In 1987, senator Jay Rockefeller saved the pepperoni roll and the small family run bakeries that make them from nonsense regulations by the USDA. Pepperoni rolls are illegal in some states because 
of how they're made and stored. 

     A bill was introduced into the WV house of delegates in April of 2001 to make the pepperoni roll our official state food. It passed there but no word from the state senate yet. I guess for now it's still the UN-official food of WV 

Sources:
Wikipedia.com, country club bakery
Wikipedia.com, pepperoni roll
Pepperoni -rolls.com, in 1987 jay Rockefeller saved the pepperoni roll, 2021, from senator Rockefeller's website
Wvlegislature.gov, house concurent resolution no 84
Wtap.com, house passes bill declaring pepperoni roll official food of west virginia, April 4th, 2021, wdtv news staff

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