Rick Mayberry, left, and Scott Davis, co-owners of Dochos, pose in front of their cheesesteak food truck on the corner of Adams Avenue and Second Street in La Grande on Friday, June 30, 2023.

LA GRANDE — What started as a hot dog and nachos stand “pandemic project,” Dochos — which combines the “dog” in hot dog and “chos” in nachos — serves cheesesteak as its main dish, just without the Philly.

Scott Davis, co-owner of Dochos, first opened his hot dog-nacho food truck on Spruce Street, between Becky’s Burger Barn and Spruce Street Market.

“That was kind of like my beginner’s test to see if that’s what I wanted to do,” he said. “And it actually did pretty well. I needed a bigger trailer, so I upgraded and … nobody, I guess, does decent Philly-style cheesesteak.”

When Davis noticed the untapped market, he asked Rick Mayberry, a longtime friend and cook, to help him open and run another food truck, which can be found on the corner of Adams Avenue and Second Street.

The new truck features a chicken or steak cheesesteak sandwich, and its menu includes hot dogs with the same recipe as the hot dog stand, beer battered Alaskan Cod, “beer brawts” and parmesan garlic ranch seasoned fries.

“I just don’t do nachos here,” Davis said.

Davis, who boasted that his kids came up with the business name, made it a point to leave out “Philly” on the side of the food truck.

“We just call it a cheesesteak,” Davis said. “The familiar term is a Philly cheesesteak, but we’re 3,000 miles from Philly, you know what I mean? … We just kind of do our own. We offer nacho cheese, Swiss American, blend cheese or pepper jack.”

Davis and Mayberry settled on a recipe for the cheesesteak after months of experimenting and testing out different iterations of the sandwich on their friends and family, finally reaching a “that’s it” moment.

Cooking for family is second nature to Dochos co-owner Mayberry, who grew up making Cajun/Creole and Southern comfort food with his grandparents, aunts and uncles for a minimum of 15 relatives in their family house in Sacramento, California, every day. Mayberry said chicken-fried steak is still one of his favorites to make.

When he was in his teens, Mayberry graduated from a culinary arts program for the youth in California. He moved to La Grande in 2009 and worked at various food jobs before partnering with Davis.

A Baker High School alum, Davis grew up in La Grande. He opened the hot dog stand in February 2021 and hasn’t looked back since.

Davis carries on a legacy of food business owners, as his grandparents owned a couple Arctic Circle restaurants in Washington and Floyd’s Chuckwagon, a now-closed local restaurant.

The Dochos cheesesteak food truck made its first appearance at Side A Brewing’s annual Back Alley Brew Fest in February. Davis said that he doesn’t spend a dime on advertising, and the popularity of the truck comes from happy customers.

“I don’t even have a Facebook page. I’m pretty old school,” he said. “Anybody can hype up their product on Facebook and overexaggerate. I’m more word-of-mouth, come find out for yourself.”

Davis and Mayberry pride themselves on their fresh and mostly locally sourced ingredients, and making plates “ready-to-order fresh.”

“We got a lot of repeat offenders,” Mayberry joked, adding what he likes best is the positive feedback customers have given him.

“Honestly, just the praise from people on giving them a good product, that’s probably my favorite thing,” he said. “Like I love being able to cook it, but hearing afterward … just everybody taking into consideration to think who made the product.”

Davis said that although the Dochos hot dog stand’s location is on Google Maps, the number listed is the same for both food trucks. The cheesesteak food truck is open Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.

Davis and Mayberry plan to be at Crazy Days in La Grande on July 14-15.