The Pocket Sandwich That Became A West Virginia Favorite

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West Virginia was a booming place of business in the early 20th century. With rapidly growing coal, timber, railroad, and steel industries, thousands of immigrants flocked to the beautiful, forest-filled state to start building their own American dreams. Naturally, these new workers would have headed to their physically demanding jobs with sustenance in tow, which likely included filling, hearty foods from home. It wasn't unusual for Italian immigrants to bring bread and salami, which they could keep on their person and use their hands to eat. It was these ingredients that would become the basis for the pepperoni roll, a beloved regional staple in West Virginia, and by far the most famous snack in the state.

At its most basic, the pepperoni roll consists of soft white bread stuffed with pepperoni. These handheld sandwiches are filling and flavored with the oil from the pepperoni, which soaks into the bread. Many bakeries and purveyors also include ingredients like Italian cheeses, tomato sauce, and peppers in their rolls. Without the cheese, there's really no rush to keep pepperoni rolls chilled, so they would have been an ideal meal for workers who didn't have access to refrigeration and who worked long hours. Pepperoni rolls are still an excellent choice for people working outside or in mines, but in West Virginia, it's just as common to see office workers, business titans, and school children diving into these baked delights for lunch because they're not only plentiful in the state, but just darn delicious.

Credit for the first commercially produced pepperoni rolls is largely given to Giuseppe Argiro, who immigrated from Calabria, Italy and found work in West Virginia's mines. However, it was likely his fellow Italian workers' wives who first introduced the concept to the region. These women would often pack their husbands' lunches, which consisted of crusty Italian bread with hunks of pepperoni, salami, or other cured meats. When Argiro left the mines to open a bakery, he reportedly remembered what his friends ate and came up with the idea to put the ingredients together into one portable dish; thus, the pepperoni roll was officially created. Of course, many other bakeries in the area followed suit, with the savory snack rapidly gaining traction across the state.

Amazingly, Argiro's bakery, Country Club Bakery, is still open in Fairmont, West Virginia and bakes the fresh rolls day in and day out. It was originally called People's Bakery. Little has changed in his original recipe: The rolls are simple, long white bread rolls with square-cut sticks of pepperoni stuffed inside. You can also find all kinds of pepperoni rolls in restaurants, bakeries, convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, and at sporting events. Some bakers use sliced or ground pepperoni instead of sticks and roll the filling ingredients in the bread dough so it's more evenly disbursed, but there's really no wrong way to prepare them. You can eat this unique treat in other nearby states like Pennsylvania, but the most memorable are certain to be in the Mountain State.