Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban walked into a restaurant called Fat Shack in Denton and ordered a Fat Slob.
It might seem out of character for the owner of the Dallas Mavericks — a guy who tries to stay healthy — to eat a meal of cheesesteak, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, french fries, ketchup and mayo, all packed inside of a single sandwich. What's more, he finished by eating a deep-fried Oreo.
Cuban's a heavy hitter at Fat Shack now. He forked over $250,000 for a 15% stake in Fat Shack, as seen on the ABC reality TV show Shark Tank's season 10 finale earlier this month.
The company is looking to take its 2,000-calorie sandwiches and expand its waistline across the United States.
Co-owners Tom Armenti and Kevin Gabauer are opening their newest North Texas Fat Shack in Fort Worth on Tuesday, May 21, near Texas Christian University's campus.
Cuban says in an email that he invested in Fat Shack in part because he liked Armenti and Gabauer. Their presentation on Shark Tank started with a green salad piled high, which they promptly threw in the trash. All of the sharks seemed to like the co-founders and the food, and four of the five made $250,000 offers for varying percentages in Fat Shack.
Cuban won, exclaiming "let's go get fat!" when the deal was done.
Investing in a junk-food company that stays open until 4 a.m. isn't typical for Cuban. "I always prefer to make healthy investments," he says in an email, "but I really liked the entrepreneurs and the food."
Fat Shack doesn't simply sell a few unhealthy treats. Armenti and Gabauer pride themselves on unabashedly unhealthy food. The Fat Cow, for instance, is a sandwich stuffed with mac and cheese, bacon, french fries, mozzarella sticks and buffalo ranch. "Not only do we serve your favorite foods like French fries, chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks, but we do it all on one sandwich," Armenti told the sharks on Shark Tank.
They say they're "not trying to hide anything," as Gabauer said to GuideLive in 2016. Cuban likes that, too.
"They are very clear about who they are," he says.
He's seen plenty of pitches — and invested in some companies — that skew toward health and wellness. That's a $700 billion industry, according to the Global Wellness Institute. Fat Shack is anything but: It's a cheat-meal place for somebody with a case of the munchies, not the type of restaurant customers should visit every day, say Cuban, Armenti and Gabauer.
The sharks were impressed by Fat Shack's $22 million in sales; fellow shark Robert Herjavec suggested that opening "a bunch of franchises" would be one way to try to make Fat Shack a big deal.
The company has ambitions of opening more restaurants in Texas, according to a press release.
Armenti calls the experience on Shark Tank "surreal," noting, "we couldn't have anticipated a better outcome than bringing Mark Cuban aboard in further developing and expanding our brand across the U.S."
