Stuart Anderson (restaurateur)
Stuart Anderson (November 27, 1922 – June 6, 2016) was an American restaurateur and founder of the Black Angus Steakhouse restaurant chain, first established in Seattle in 1964.
Early life[edit]
Anderson was born in Tacoma, Washington, and raised in Seattle in well-to-do circumstances. His father was a successful orthopedic surgeon during the Great Depression. Anderson would joke that his difficult circumstances included having to walk all the way across the Broadmoor golf course to school.[1] He left Seattle to join the United States Army during World War II, driving tanks in General George S. Patton's Third Army,[2] and returned to Seattle in 1949.[3][1]
Career[edit]
In Seattle after the war, Anderson bought a hotel, The Caledonia, in order to circumvent the state's blue laws and sell alcohol in the hotel bar which he called the Ringside Room.[1] Anderson would later say in his book Here's the Beef! My Story of Beef that "Hookers, seamen, hustlers and wrestlers made up most of my trade."[4] Around 1960,[5] he opened a restaurant there and called it The French Quarter. In 1962, it was remade with a Klondike Gold Rush theme for the 1962 World's Fair and renamed to The Gold Coast.[6] Finally in 1964 it was renamed again to Stuart Anderson's Black Angus before moving to Seattle's Elliott Avenue in the Denny Triangle.[7]
Eventually Black Angus became a chain with over 100 restaurants which Anderson sold in 1972.[2]
Anderson's 2,600-acre (1,100 ha) ranch in Thorp could be seen from Interstate 90, and was featured in commercials.[8]
Anderson came out of retirement in Rancho Mirage, California to re-open a struggling Black Angus restaurant under the name Stuart's Steakhouse in 2010. It closed in 2012.[5][9] He died from lung cancer at his home in Rancho Mirage on June 6, 2016, at the age of 93.[4][9]
Legacy[edit]
Anderson and his restaurants are credited with launching the western-theme restaurant concept (Ponderosa Steakhouse and Bonanza Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse) and the careers of other successful restaurant businesspeople like Julia Stewart, DineEquity CEO.[2]
His wife Helen said that despite his success in business, he could not cook steak, and "the best he could do would be peanut butter sandwiches or frying eggs".[4]
Anderson was inducted to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame[10] in 2008 for his support.[8]
Bibliography[edit]
Anderson wrote two books about his life in the restaurant business. The second, Corporate Cowboy Stuart Anderson: How a Maverick Entrepreneur Built Black Angus, America’s #1 Restaurant Chain of the 1980s, was written in 2014 shortly before his death.[11]
- Anderson, Stuart (1997). Here's the Beef! My Story of Beef. Seattle, Washington: Hara. ISBN 1883697948.
- Anderson, Stuart (2014). Corporate Cowboy Stuart Anderson: How a Maverick Entrepreneur Built Black Angus, America's #1 Restaurant Chain of the 1980s. San Bernardino, California: Stuart Anderson. ISBN 978-0692200636.
Personal life[edit]
Anderson was married to Helen Anderson, née Fisher, from North Dakota.[12]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Mike Seely (April 26, 2011), "Stuart Anderson's Filthy Rich Seattle Roots", Seattle Weekly
- ^ a b c Peter Romeo (June 9, 2016), "STEAKHOUSE PIONEER STUART ANDERSON DIES AT AGE 93", Restaurant Business
- ^ Tu, Janet I. (June 9, 2016), "Stuart Anderson remembered as 'a legend' in Northwest restaurant industry", The Seattle Times
- ^ a b c "Stuart Anderson, Founder of Black Angus Steakhouse, Dies at 93", The New York Times, Associated Press, June 9, 2016
- ^ a b Tamara Damante (April 19, 2012), Black Angus Founder Closes Desert Restaurant: Stuart Anderson gives retirement another try, at 89, KESQ
- ^ Bernstein, Charles (1981), Great Restaurant Innovators: Profiles in Success, New York, New York: Lebhar-Friedman Books, pp. 97–98, ISBN 9780867302394
- ^ Humphrey, Clark (2006), Vanishing Seattle, Arcadia, p. 51, ISBN 9780738548692
- ^ a b "Stuart Anderson left a lasting legacy in Ellensburg", Daily Record, Ellensburg, Washington, June 9, 2016
- ^ a b Steakhouse chain founder Stuart Anderson dies, Riverside, California: Inland Empire News Radio, June 15, 2016
- ^ "Stuart Anderson | Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame". erhof.com. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ^ Mike Flynn (April 5, 2014), "Stuart Anderson reflects on steakhouse business", The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, California
- ^ "Joan O'Connor obituary", Minot Daily News, January 22, 2009
