Denton’s Fat Shack is a lil’ ol’ place where we can eat deep-fried food together

Let’s say you like deep-fried food, including food of the sort that isn’t ordinarily deep-fried, but you don’t want to deal with the crowds at the State Fair of Texas. Or you don’t mind the crowds, but the fair doesn’t last long enough for your cravings. Or you live closer to, say, Denton than you do to Fair Park.

The Fat Shack, which opened a few months ago in Denton, might be your place. Oh, sure, there’s that State Fair Treats restaurant in a Plano Wal-Mart, but there’s something about Fat Shack that’s a little more organic, although nothing about the food here is “organic.”

According to Fat Shack’s website, the small chain was created by Tom Armenti, who has a degree in marketing from the College of New Jersey. He made a deal to share space with a local bagel store: His restaurant would operate from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., when the bagel store wasn’t open. Sharing space proved difficult, though, and during a visit to family in Fort Collins, Colo., he decided to relocate to that town (the home of Colorado State University).

The business grew: There are a half-dozen Colorado locations as well as a Jersey one. Denton got the first Texas location, because Denton bears some demographic similarities to Fort Collins.

The Denton shop is in a smallish space in an Elm Street strip mall that looks like it dates to the ’60s. Woodstock and Beatles posters are among the wall decor. Counter staff is laid-back and friendly, and will provide suggestions as you look at the wall menu, which can require some concentration even though it is largely made up of sandwiches with the word “Fat” in the name.

There are also burgers, wings, cheesesteak sandwiches and a number of fried desserts including, yes, Fried Twinkies. A counter server said the burgers are awesome, but it was the Fat sandwiches I was there for.

The menu provides its own suggestions (“Great for first-timers!”), which can help you make a decision, but advance online study is recommended. All the sandwiches come with fries — on the sandwich — and you might think one that also has onion rings and mozzarella sticks is too much. Then again, the place is called Fat Shack, so you’re probably not going there for your health.

Disregarding my own health, I decided to put together a three-course meal. The Mac ‘N’ Cheese Bites ($5.99) were one of the more intriguing appetizers, a half-dozen triangular pockets of macaroni and cheese that had managed to deliver on the comfort-food flavor even with all that coating. They’re served with a side of Buffalo ranch, a dip that gave them a welcome kick.

Sandwiches come in 8-inch and foot-long varieties; for most people, the smaller size will be plenty. The Fat Earl ($7.99/$12.69) comes with chicken fingers, fries, pickles, onions and two barbecue sauces. The chicken coating had a nice crunch and the chicken was flavorful; the fries somehow maintained their consistency and called mashed potatoes to mind. But it was the bite of the pickles and the sweet tang of the sauce that put the sandwich over the top.

Speaking of over-the-top, dessert was Deep-Fried Rice Krispies Treats ($3.99 for six “bites”), covered in a blizzard of powdered sugar. The puffed-rice cereal maintained its snap and crackle, and the marshmallow flavor was there, but as a whole, this didn’t quite pop. It was tasty enough, but there are other items on the dessert menu — Oreos, the aforementioned Twinkies — that stand up better to being deep-fried.

On a separate visit, I tried the Fat Cow ($8.99/$12.89), a mac-n-cheese/bacon/fries/mozzarella sticks concoction. It was a minor disappointment, largely because the cheeses weren’t holding up their end of the deal and it merely came across as a bunch of fried food on a roll, but with bacon. A small order of fries ($1.99) on the side was a little redundant, and the fries on the sandwich actually had a better texture.

Both visits were late-lunch stops, but the Fat Shack motto is “Late Night Done Right,” and if you’re actually in Denton, you can get delivery as late as 3 in the morning. But it’s open after midnight, just in case you get one of those fried-food cravings that hit late at night.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 2:01 PM with the headline "Denton’s Fat Shack is a lil’ ol’ place where we can eat deep-fried food together."