Fat Shack

Fat Shack is an American fast-casual restaurant chain founded in Fort Collins, Colorado. As of June 2025, it has 30 corporate and franchise-owned restaurants across thirteen states. Their latest restaurant opening in Melbourne, FL marks the company's second location in Florida. ^[1]

Fat Shack Inc.

Company type	Privately held company
Genre	Fast casual restaurant
Founded	2010; 15 years ago (2010)
Founder	Tom Armenti
Headquarters	Denver, Colorado
Number of locations	30 (2025)
Area served	United States
Website	www.fatshack.com

History

Origins

The Fat Shack concept was created in February 2010 by Tom Armenti and a group of longtime friends intown of Ramsey, New Jersey, operating from 6 pm to 4 am in a bagel shop owned by the family of one of the friends (which operated at the location during the day time). Once the bagel shop's staff left for the day, Tom would re-open the store and operate his new late night restaurant from 6PM to 4AM.

In August 2011, Armenti moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, where he opened the doors to the first full-size Fat Shack restaurant.^[2]

Fat Shack Sandwich

Growth

Armenti's college classmate and close friend, Kevin Gabauer joined the company in Fort Collins and worked with the founder to re-organize the menu, refreshing the company's brand and simplifying operations. Within six months, Fat Shack opened another location in Boulder.

In February 2015, Fat Shack celebrated the grand opening of its first franchise in Denver at DU. After opening several more locations in Colorado, interstate expansion began in Denton, Texas.^[3] Fat Shack now has 29 locations throughout the United States.

Interior of the Fat Shack location in Wheat Ridge, CO

Shark Tank appearance

In May 2019, Armenti and Gabauer appeared on the Season 10 finale of the ABC program Shark Tank. The sharks were impressed by Fat Shack's $22 million in lifetime sales.^[4] The duo struck a deal with investor Mark Cuban for $250,000 for 15% of the company. Overnight, the team received hundreds of franchise requests, and had accumulated over 3,000 within 48 hours of their episode airing.^[5]

Menu

From the beginning, the staples of Fat Shack's menu has been their 'Fat Sandwiches', which draw their origins from the Grease trucks at Rutgers University, burgers, deep-fried desserts, chicken wings, and philly cheesesteaks. Other offerings include milkshakes, mozzarella sticks and deep-fried mac and cheese. The restaurants often offer seasonal items such as deep-fried mint Oreos during the month of March. Many offerings surpass daily recommended intake of calories with some ranging upwards of 2,000 Calories.^[4]

A Fat Shack employee working the grilltop.