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Ashley (Brooks) Hoogkamp ’01 is serving up success in Lake Placid

When she graduated from Broadalbin-Perth in 2001, Ashley Brooks never expected that, in less than 10 years, she would be a successful restaurateur. The 27-year-old owner of Ashley’s Café runs her restaurant with husband and head chef Jason Hoogkamp in downtown Lake Placid – just steps from the Olympic Center, home to the 1980 Miracle on Ice.

“It took a while to get the locals,” Ashley says, “but now it’s become a morning gathering spot. People like it because we have a different variety of food, including vegetarian options. Everything we serve is healthy, and people here like to eat healthy.”

After graduating in 2005 from the University at Albany with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, Ashley didn’t find a job in her chosen field right away, so she paid the bills by working at Starbucks. During her time behind the counter, Ashley recalls, she always thought, “I could do this!”

Opportunity struck when she was visiting Lake Placid with her family and saw the vacant space on Main Street. Her then-fiancée Jason was already working as a cook, so the couple decided to go for it, and Ashley’s Café opened in December 2007.

Ashley says that the café is very busy during the summer months when tourists descend on Lake Placid, and lines to sample Jason’s Adirondack cuisine often stretch onto the sidewalk. However, a quick Google search for “Ashley’s Café Lake Placid” proves that Ashley’s is worth the wait: Users of TripAdvisor.com have given Ashley’s a rating of 4.5 out of 5 over 26 reviews.

Ashley says she would love to expand the café to offer more seating, but for now she’s working on expanding the café’s catering service – an important part of her business during the off-season.

She credits much of her success to her years at Broadalbin-Perth. “You spend so much time in high school, of course it’s still going to impact you,” she says. Her class was a tight-knit group that all got along: “We were strong friends, and most of us are still in touch with each other.”

Ashley also has fond memories of her teachers, especially of Mike Calvello, who taught her favorite class, band. “All the teachers were great. There were lots of teachers you could talk to, and that’s important when you’re in high school.”

Ashley believes that the community in which she grew up has also helped her along the way. “Lake Placid is a small town, similar to Broadalbin. There’s not a lot of diversity in either town, but when I graduated from high school, I walked away with an open mind, and I think it had to come from living in Broadalbin.”

To find out more about Ashley’s Café, visit the restaurant’s page on Facebook. Ashley’s Café is located at 2726 Main Street in Lake Placid.