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. Around 1960, 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. Finally in 1964 it was renamed again to Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus before moving to Seattle’s Elliott Avenue in the Denny Triangle.

Eventually Black Angus became a chain with over 100 restaurants which Anderson sold in 1972.

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 business people like Julia Stewart (DineEquity CEO). Anderson was inducted to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2008 for his support. He published his memoirs in 1997 Here’s the Beef! My Story of Beef.”

At 90 years of age, Anderson came out of retirement to re-open a struggling Black Angus under the name Stuart’s Steakhouse. Anderson died in June 2016.