Chris Sempeles gets his cheese whiz from back east and his hoagie rolls from a local bakery owned by a Pennsylvania native.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to serve a half-assed cheesesteak,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The 36 year old, along with two of friends, purchased 674 Santa Fe Drive earlier this month for $690,000 from a private trust fund, according to public records.<\/p>\n
That amounts to $362 per square foot for space that was previously home to a head shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the tippy-top of our budget, but we hadn\u2019t seen a space this good check all of our boxes \u2018til here,\u201d Sempeles said.<\/p>\n
Those boxes? Room for a commissary kitchen and a cheesesteak spot.<\/p>\n
For the past six years, Sempeles and childhood friend Kyle Pellman have run a food truck rental business, ProtoTaste.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can rent the commissary kitchen. You can rent the food truck. Then, once you get some feedback \u2026we can also help you design your custom food trailer. And if you need financing, we have partners that can help with that too,\u201d Sempeles said<\/p>\n
Last year, the company\u2019s single food truck took in $50,000 from 10 different users. Nine of them rented more than once.<\/p>\n
The initial food truck purchase came purely from savings. Sempeles got a $20,000 loan from his parents to get the rest of the business off the ground, all while continuing to work full time elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are right on the cusp of profitability,\u201d Sempeles said. \u201cHopefully this year, in 2026, not only does that number grow, but it also should be our first year in the black.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, clients do their prep work for food truck rentals out of rented and shared commissary kitchen just off 40th and Colorado. But the space works on a first-come-first-serve basis.<\/p>\n
Sempeles said the duo needed more predictability and control over their business model to scale up its operations.<\/p>\n
But the kitchen at 674 Santa Fe only represents half the space. The other half, a storefront facing the street, will be home to Guilty Pleasures Grub, a late-night cheesesteak spot. The business started out of ProtoTaste\u2019s food truck when it wasn\u2019t being rented.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do cheesesteaks at first, because I didn\u2019t want to do a disservice to it \u2026 it took me a while to find the right bread,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
That started about four years ago, Sempeles said. And when he began receiving several calls a week from hungry customers asking where the truck was parked that day, he knew he needed to find a permanent location for that business, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that I wanted to own the building, not lease it,\u201d Sempeles said. \u201cI just feel like, if something were to happen on the tenant side, and I fall flat on my face, we at least still own the asset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, the two Keystone State natives set out on a real estate hunt to find a home for their pair of businesses.<\/p>\n