Rare is a University of Kentucky men’s home basketball game in which ESPN analyst Jay Bilas does not enticingly consume on national TV a huge soft-serve ice cream cone, a treat available to the masses at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
Bilas devours the ice cream with much enthusiasm—like a team experiencing a shooting drought hitting five straight three-pointers.
From where does that fine, sweet concoction that brings so much pleasure to connoisseur Bilas come?
You’d have to travel 27 miles west of Lexington to Lawrenceburg—population about 12,000 and the seat of Anderson County—to find it. The county is known for its bourbon distilleries, but in the near future, people may come to think of it more for its ice cream. That is due to the hard work and dreams of two young sisters and their parents.
The ice cream Bilas relishes at UK basketball games comes from Taylor Belle’s Ice Cream. Its founder and chief executive officer is Taylor Cook. She is 24.
The owner of Taylor Belle’s & Burgers restaurant, a partner business, is Annabelle Cook. She is 19.
They receive guidance from their parents—John Cook, the chief operating officer, and Amanda Cook, the chief financial officer when she is not working for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
The company’s headquarters and spiffy restaurant are on Glensboro Road off U.S. 127 in northern Lawrenceburg.
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Cool FFA Project
Taylor was a 15-year-old student at Anderson County High School tackling a Future Farmers of America project about future careers. She chose to write about an ice cream truck and came up with a timeline for the business, including its staffing and plans to keep it afloat. Her dad, John, who founded a wooden pallet business, guided her.
Taylor received an A for her paper. It later won state and national FFA recognition.
Her dad was so enthralled with his daughter’s idea that, after a family decision, the Cooks invested in building an ice cream company. The business started in May 2016, when it sold ice cream from a food truck at a concert in nearby Frankfort.
Today, the family operates two businesses.
Taylor Belle’s sells ice cream at the wholesale level to Kentucky public schools and from four mobile trucks at UK home basketball and football games, Lexington Legends home games, the infield at the Kentucky Derby, and other venues such as weddings and birthday parties in the state.
Taylor Belle’s & Burgers sells Taylor Belle’s ice cream plus hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, onion rings and other fast food. The restaurant is the former site of a car lot and a liquor store. Combined, the businesses have 37 full-time employees, 40-50 part-time workers depending on the season, and a processing facility to make the ice cream.
Taylor and Annabelle smile when they say their parents work for them.
“The girls do let us get in a word or two,” John said. “No, this is truly a family affair.”
John, who was an FFA member in his younger days, said he never considered it risky to plunge into the ice cream business based on his daughter’s high school class assignment. “You know you would do anything for your kids. Taylor was very serious about this. We all felt the same way,” he said.
John said he thought Annabelle wanted to be a softball player. “But she decided to join in with her sister and now runs the restaurant,” he said.
Taylor stuck with the business and got a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. Annabelle said she has no regrets about not attending college.
Amanda Cook said she sometimes stops and soaks in all that has happened to her family in the ice cream world. “It’s mind-boggling,” she acknowledged. “The girls have come so far in such a short time. I was always the more cautious one, but so far, so good.”
Amanda noted that her family devoured lots of ice cream even before it became a thriving business for them. “And we plowed right through the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.
The family did not let the pandemic slow down business.
Accolades and Looking Forward
Taylor would like to create multiple locations for the company. “I know this will be my lifelong career,” she said.
Annabelle, who started working for her sister when she was 10, said she also plans to stay in the business.
Both are single. Taylor said she hopes to start a family someday, while Annabelle said she plans “to go with the flow” on any family plan.
A typical workday for each sister is 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and closed on Sunday and Monday. It sells 28 flavors of ice cream. Taylor prefers Banana Belle. Cookies & Cream is the company’s top seller.
Taylor’s FFA jacket, family photos and other memorabilia of the business are displayed on a wall in the restaurant.
Last year, the National Association of Women Business Owners Kentucky Chapter awarded Taylor the NEXT-GEN Woman Business Owner of the Year Award for female entrepreneurship. She also has been honored by the Kentucky House of Representatives with a Citation of Achievement for her business accomplishments.
During a UK home game this past college basketball season, Taylor walked onto the Rupp Arena court and introduced herself to Bilas.
“I told him who I was,” she said, “and the first thing he said to me was ‘Oh, my gosh. I love you.’”
She visited him again during the season and gave him a company sweatshirt with its ice cream logo.
Bilas, a Charlotte, North Carolina, attorney, recalled in a phone interview that he was calling a game at Rupp Arena when a camera took a shot of the opposing team.
“In the background was a fellow eating a nice-looking ice cream cone but not so aggressively. I said something about it, and before long a UK cheerleader gave me one. I went after it,” Bilas recalled. “I loved it and must have one every time I am at Rupp.
“I know nothing about the ice cream business, but I would tell those two sisters to keep making delicious ice cream. I love the chocolate swirl—one of the great pleasures of life.”
When You Go
Taylor Belle’s & Burgers
1066 Glensboro Road, Lawrenceburg
502.353.4321
taylorbellesicecream.com
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.