Local History

The Pepperoni Roll: From the Coal Mine to the Lunch Tray ⛏️🍞

Before it was a lunch-tray legend, it was a coal miner's lunch. It needed no icebox, packed easy in a lunch pail, and left one hand free. Here's how it found its way to Putnam's lunch rooms.

1. 1927 · Fairmont Beyond YonderItalian-born baker and former coal miner Giuseppe "Joseph" Argiro, who came from Calabria, is credited with baking pepperoni right into the bread. Miners had long packed bread and a stick of pepperoni; he put the two together. His Country Club Bakery still bakes them today. (WV Tourism notes miners' wives likely made the first ones at home.)
2. 1957 · Fairmont Beyond Yonder"Spider" Colasessano began dressin' them up with cheese, hot peppers, and even hot dog sauce. The original was just pepperoni in a soft roll.
3. 1987 · Washington Beyond YonderUSDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service proposed rules that would have treated pepperoni-roll bakeries like meat processors. West Virginia's congressional delegation pushed back, led by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, and the idea was dropped.
4. 2013, 2021 & 2023 · Charleston Beyond YonderLawmakers tried to name it West Virginia's official state food. In 2021 the House adopted the resolution, but none ever cleared both chambers. Officially unofficial, and loved all the same. 😉
5. Today · Right here at home 💚School kitchens across West Virginia bake them from scratch, and Putnam County Schools' menus still list the "School Made Pepperoni Roll." Bake the family-size batch →

Sources: e-WV, the West Virginia Encyclopedia · WV Tourism · Historical marker (HMdb) · The Washington Post, Mar. 25, 1987 · WV Legislature, HCR 84 (2013) · HCR 19 (2023) · WV Public Broadcasting · Putnam County Schools menu

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