Born and raised in Cynthiana, Mary Todd Ashbrook has spent her life in and around the Harrison County city. A 2007 graduate of Harrison County High School in Cynthiana, Ashbrook has been well-rooted in the community from an early age and has enjoyed the small-town lifestyle and sense of community pride the area provides.

At 15 years old, Ashbrook began working at Biancke’s Restaurant, which has been open since 1894 and is the state of Kentucky’s oldest continuously-running restaurant. Despite originally moving to Lexington for college, she continued to work at Biancke’s on weekends and eventually purchased the restaurant in 2009 at the ripe age of 20.

“At the beginning, running Biancke’s was great,” Ashbrook said. “I was single. I didn’t have kids. I could put all of my time into the restaurant. Fast forward 10 years, life had changed. I was married to my husband, J.D., with two children and pregnant with a third so I decided to sell the restaurant.”