Angus Steakhouse is a restaurant chain of steak houses in central London. In 2001, there were about 30 outlets; five remain open as of July 2020. The name reflects Aberdeen Angus, a common breed of beef cattle. Some restaurants still retain the former trading name, "Aberdeen Steak Houses", on their signage, as of September 2016. Aberdeen Steak Houses was started in the early 1960s by Reginald Eastwood (born c.1913), who had started in business aged 15 as an apprentice butcher.[citation needed] Eastwood's vision was for a more modern version of the earlier chop-house grills, and was influenced by American steak houses. The décor was opulent, with plate glass windows and red velour banquettes. Menus included trendy dishes like prawn cocktail and Black Forest gateau By the 1970s, the group was focused more on tourist trade, with many branches in the West End to attract those attending theatre or musical shows In 1984, the group was sold to Ali Salih, a Turkish businessman with a low public profile.The menu and décor showed little update since the 1960s, and the brand got a reputation as tourist traps for Its business, along with the wider UK beef industry, was hit in the 1990s by bovine spongiform encephalopathy, (BSE) then by foot and mouth disease in 2001.It made a loss of £3m in 2000 decline in American tourists after the September 11 attacks was also cited by Salih after the group went into receivership in October 2002, with £7m in debt. In 2011, actor and comedian David Mitchell championed the cause of Aberdeen Angus Steak Houses in his opinion column in The Guardian, proposing that they be a nominee for a British World Heritage bid, citing them as being "unique to British culture" because of their "proud heritage of serving shoe leather with Béarnaise sauce to neon-addled out-of-towners
