A variety of tastes await Denton diners. by mark stuertz

It’s a rainbow of plates, a multiplicity of bowls, a cornucopia of cookery. In Denton, the culinary gamut is spanned, but you won’t get the wind knocked out of your wallet when you try what the city has to offer. If you can’t satiate your curiosity and arouse your taste receptors to a pleasurable crescendo in this evolving city, you simply aren’t trying. Examples to sample? Here are three:

When Fuzzy’s Taco Shop began serving Bajastyle Mexican food in December 2007 (there are two additional locations in Fort Worth), owner Mel Knight thought he would do well. But even he couldn’t predict how frothy his success would be. Fuzzy’s is the buzz around town, serving more than 600 tacos each day. You can get tacos and burritos for breakfast (potato egg and cheese or chorizo egg and cheese); grilled sandwiches or jumbo burritos bigger than a ham-fisted appetite for lunch; and taco, enchilada, fajita, or combo plates for dinner.

The crux of the Fuzzy’s experience is the fish taco. Fuzzy’s tempura fish tacos are jammed with chunks of freshly battered and fried pollack scattered in a web of chopped lettuce, shredded cheese, tomato, and generous lumps of feta cheese laced with cilantro and sassed with garlic sauce in a soft or crispy tortilla. Enjoy Fuzzy’s tortilla chips—dusted with season salt for bolder flavor—dragged through Fuzzy’s irresistible white cheese queso, a secret formulation of white cheese and seasonings. Not content? Then fork a steaming bowl of borracho beans steeped in beer and secret spices.

I f you demand action in your dining, then the Pourhouse Sports Grill on Unicorn Lake is where you’ll want to settle. You can relax on the patio and survey this sanctuary for waterfowl and beavers while bass and catfish loiter beneath the windswept Unicorn waves. Or you can settle into the media room and take in a different brand of wildlife. The Pourhouse media room is a Las Vegasstyle sports lounge with plush banquettes and theater-style recliners strategically positioned for maximum game-watching capabilities from a 144-inch projection screen, all flanked by four 58-inch widescreen televisions.

To invigorate your sports relish, try a Pourhouse wood-fired thin crust pizza baked on pizza stones to give the pies that heady crispness. Or sample the chewy St. Louis-style rotisserie pork ribs with a side of tangy “cue” sauce. But no game is worth its spectator salt without the Pourhouse signature Cuban, a lush layering of thin-sliced pork and ham with Swiss cheese and a dab of mustard on a grilled ciabatta roll.

I f your tastes trend toward the lightly formal and sophisticated, then Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant is the sweet spot. Savor the antipastos (Calamari fritti, portabella mushrooms). Revel in the pastas (fettuccine Alfredo, linguine gamberi, even a tortellini Bolognese). Giuseppe’s has separate dining spaces framed in rich wood panels and perked with deep textured oranges and reds. Antique buffets and cabinets are stocked of earthy Italian wines.

But here, the reputation is staked on sauces. Giuseppe’s Marsala sauce is rich and savory, with endless layers of smoke, pepper, and herbs. Try it over a scaloppine of veal. Or swivel your fork in Giuseppe’s angel hair in a zesty marinara. You can have sautéed chicken in a velvety-smooth lemon butter with a touch of chardonnay, grilled salmon in a richly sweet lobster sauce, or tilapia in a lithe champagne cream sauce.

In the end, your only regrets in Denton will be that you won’t have room for all of its varied flavors in a single day of sittings: All the more reason to come back.

Mark Stuertz is a James Beard Award-winning Dallas-based food writer.