Chris Sempeles gets his cheese whiz from back east and his hoagie rolls from a local bakery owned by a Pennsylvania native.
“I don’t want to serve a half-assed cheesesteak,” he said.
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.
That amounts to $362 per square foot for space that was previously home to a head shop.
“It was the tippy-top of our budget, but we hadn’t seen a space this good check all of our boxes ‘til here,” Sempeles said.
Those boxes? Room for a commissary kitchen and a cheesesteak spot.
For the past six years, Sempeles and childhood friend Kyle Pellman have run a food truck rental business, ProtoTaste.
“You can rent the commissary kitchen. You can rent the food truck. Then, once you get some feedback …we can also help you design your custom food trailer. And if you need financing, we have partners that can help with that too,” Sempeles said
Last year, the company’s single food truck took in $50,000 from 10 different users. Nine of them rented more than once.
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.
“We are right on the cusp of profitability,” Sempeles said. “Hopefully this year, in 2026, not only does that number grow, but it also should be our first year in the black.”
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.
Sempeles said the duo needed more predictability and control over their business model to scale up its operations.
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’s food truck when it wasn’t being rented.
“I didn’t want to do cheesesteaks at first, because I didn’t want to do a disservice to it … it took me a while to find the right bread,” he added.
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.
“I knew that I wanted to own the building, not lease it,” Sempeles said. “I 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.”
Last year, the two Keystone State natives set out on a real estate hunt to find a home for their pair of businesses.
Sempeles looked all over the metro, he said, which included making an unsuccessful bid for retail space on the corner of Vrain and West Colfax.
Fortunately, the Santa Fe opportunity arose soon after. The 135-year-old building’s layout makes it easy to separate the two uses, with an alleyway for late night grab-and-go service.
Sempeles said the full menu, which won’t be more than a handful of items, is still being determined. But a $16 nine-inch cheesesteak and “an awesome dessert” will be on it. He hopes to open by next spring after the $250,000 buildout is complete.
“I’m Greek, and I come from three generations in the restaurant industry,” Sempeles said. “My great grandfather came over, started a restaurant back in Harrisburg (Pennsylvania), and then my grandfather had a diner. My father, he actually helped open a sandwich shop that’s still there today.”
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