King of pepperoni rolls!! 

#1 pepperoni rolls in West Virginia?

Onlyinyourstate.com  web site says Fairmont’s Country Club Bakery Country Club Road, birthplace of the pepperoni roll in the 1920’s.

But my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, prefers Colasessanos in Fairmont, #4 on this list. She used to bring me Country Club rolls to Mountaineer Field but, after CC spiced up its pepperoni rolls too much for my body to handle, switched to Colassessanos.

The top 13 on this PR list:

1. Country Club Bakery, which turns out 250 to 900 dozen rolls a day.

2. Chico Bakery in Morgantown, which sticks to the recipe that Julia used in 1925.

3. Health Bread Company in Clarksburg.

4. Colasessanos World Famous Pizza and Pepperoni Buns in Fairmont, which ships anywhere in America for all those West Virginia ex-pats who might get a craving for home.

5. Kitchen Creek Bakery in Gap Mills, a Mennonite-run Monroe County bakery.

6. Tomaro’s Bakery in Clarksburg, the state’s oldest Italian bakery (since 1914).

7. The Donut Shop in Buckhannon.

8. Greco’s in Wheeling, an Italian restaurant.

9. Wild Flour Bakery in Fayetteville.

10. King’s NY Pizza Italian Restaurant in Martinsburg.

11. JR’s Donut Castle, a Parkersburg institution also known for its donuts.

12. The Irish Pub in Lewisburg. Swill it down, sure and begorra, with fine Irish whiskey.

Pepperoni rolls started as a lunch option for coal miners during the first half of the 20th century. They don’t need to be refrigerated for storage, so miners could easily pack them in their lunches.

Italian immigrant Giuseppe “Joseph” Argiro, who is credited for inventing them, first sold them at the Country Club Bakery in Fairmont in 1927.