AMANDA BRAMBLE PROFILE

At Mile 60, Tom Brokaw met with Amanda Bramble for the first American Character dispatch.

Amanda was born and raised along Highway 50. And though for a time she left her hometown of Cambridge, moving to places as distant as California and Puerto Rico, Amanda's path eventually brought her home, to the town on the Chesapeake Bay where three generations of her family have lived and worked. Her ties to the community, and to the water on which the community of Cambridge was built, are strong. So strong, in fact, that Amanda was able to undertake something anyone with less courage, determination, and support would most likely never have managed to do successfully: open a restaurant in the middle of winter and in an even more frigid economy. But with the help of family, friends, and private local investors rather than traditional bank loans, Amanda's dream of opening Jimmie and Sook's, a restaurant serving fresh, locally-caught fish, oysters and crab, was realized.

What is more astonishing than the fact that Amanda opened Jimmie and Sook's under such circumstances? The fact that it's thriving. As it turns out, Amanda's vision of a homegrown restaurant that would pay tribute to the community from which it sprang and provide a welcoming gathering space for Cambridge locals and visitors alike was just what the town needed. With decor featuring the legendary Chesapeake Bay Watermen - the men and women who fish, oyster and crab in the area - and a name given in honor of the crab Amanda considers the lifeblood of the area ("Jimmie" is the term for a male crab, "Sook" for a female crab), the restaurant is in every sense a community-owned business, And, of course, for anyone else who happens to be passing along Highway 50 or has a hankering for some legendary Maryland Blue Crab.

Amanda is a true American Character.