LA GRANDE — Joe and Jamie Cox of La Grande are the new owners of Local Harvest Eatery and Pub, 2104 Island Ave., in La Grande.

“We bought the business in January, and we took over on February 1,” Joe said.

Joe Cox left his railroad job to open the pizzeria with his wife, he said. The couple are new to the restaurant business, but they felt confident taking over a well-established pizzeria developed in 2016 by former owners Harvest Rogers and her father, Bruce Rogers. It was Bear Mountain Pizza and Klondike Pizza and Restaurant before that.

Joe and Jamie Cox decided to retain the business name, Local Harvest, for the time being due to their dealings with the Oregon Lottery.

“However, we’ll probably be changing the business name down the road because we’re looking at making a theme change,” he said.

They specialize in pizza and wings with a large selection of salad and beer choices.

“Of course, pizza and beer — those are like bread and butter,” he said.

The next most popular food item on their menu is the huge 50-topping salad bar and also their chicken wings.

“We also have hot sandwiches and some fried foods,” he added.

They serve sandwiches hot on a Ciabatta bun with a side order of fries or a small salad bar. Sandwich choices include apricot chicken, Philly roast beef, plain roast beef, The Italian, and pesto chicken. Of course there are also desserts on the menu.

Joe Cox works full-time at the restaurant, one of four full-time workers out of 20 employee positions.

Jamie Cox works at the business administrative duties — “all the not so fun stuff,” her husband said.

She also works at the Oregon State Extension office on North McAlister.

“She teaches healthy eating to kids in schools, among the other things,” he said.

Party room and arcade

Local Harvest offers a party room for group dining and gatherings, which can be reserved by customers.

“We do a lot of business with buses of high school and college sports teams,” Cox said. “We have enough parking to accommodate about 30 vehicles and some buses.”

The Coxes have done quite a bit of renovation, and they have a lot more in the works.

“We added new pinball machines in our arcade and more arcade games are on order and coming. Our lottery machines should be operational again soon.”

Joe and Jamie Cox would like to welcome everyone to their pizzeria to enjoy delicious pizzas, chicken wings, a great salad bar, hot sandwiches and beverages.

“We are family owned and take pride in the quality of our products,” he said.