Kora located at 45-12 Greenpoint Ave.Photo by Nina Sityar
March 27, 2025 By Shane O’Brien
Sunnyside is getting a sweet new addition to the neighborhood.
Kora, the beloved bakery known for its specialty donuts with a Filipino twist, will officially celebrate its grand opening this Saturday, March 29, after opening its first brick-and-mortar location earlier this week.
The excitement was palpable on Tuesday, March 25, when hundreds of eager customers lined up for Kora’s soft opening at 45-12 Greenpoint Ave. The store quickly sold out of all its delicious offerings in just a few hours. Now, the bakery is gearing up for its highly anticipated grand opening this weekend, featuring a ribbon-cutting ceremony and plenty of fanfare.
Via @fromkora on Instagram
The bakery will open at 9:30 a.m. every day this week and remain open until all products sell out, with Saturday’s grand opening slated to kick off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 9 a.m. The store will then operate as normal from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Founder Kim Camara and Kevin Borja, who started the bakery in their Woodside apartment after being laid off from jobs in the hospitality sector at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, acquired the 2,100 square foot space on Greenpoint Avenue last August and had initially planned to open by the end of the year. The space had previously housed a dining hall and frozen yogurt shop.
Camara said Tuesday that it is a “relief to finally be in the space,” stating that Kora’s new facilities will allow the bakery to expand its offerings to customers.
Kora previously operated out of a commissary kitchen in Sunnyside before acquiring its first brick-and-mortar location, with Camara stating that demand for the bakery’s specialty donuts “had a life of its own.”
The new brick-and-mortar location, which employs around 16 members of staff and caters to 18 customers at a time, will feature a number of Kora specialties, including its best-selling flan donut and its ube & coconut cookie.
Camara said the bakery has also added new items to its brand-new physical location, including a variety of croissants and laminated pastries.
Photo by Nina Sityar
With more than 300 people stopping by for Kora’s soft opening Tuesday, Camara said early data indicates that the bakery’s new spam and pimento cheese croissant with chili crisp will be a big hit in the new brick-and-mortar location.
Camara said Tuesday’s soft-opening was an “amazing” experience for Kora staff, adding that she had no idea how many customers to expect on the store’s first day in business.
“We had no idea how much (food) to make,” Camara said. “I expected some lines, but you never really know what to expect as these things. It was just so cool to see everybody finally in the space and be able to freely just pop in.”
The crowd during the soft opening. Photo by Nina Sityar
Tuesday’s soft opening came roughly five years after Camara and Broja began making donuts during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Camara explained in August that the bakery is named after her grandmother, who died in January 2020 and left behind a recipe book that inspired many of the popular products on sale at Kora today.
Camara had initially hoped to pay homage to her late grandmother by hosting tasting dinners at her apartment using her grandmother’s recipes but was forced to change trajectory when Covid hit.
“I wanted to use some of her recipes to create tasting dinners from my apartment,” Camara told the Sunnyside Post in August. “But Covid changed the trajectory of that project, and I tried to figure out a different way – and it was through these donuts.”
Within months of launching, Eater reported a waitlist of 800 people, which grew to 10,000 by 2021, as foodies flocked to Sunnyside from all five boroughs of New York City to sample the elusive donuts.
As pandemic restrictions eased, however, Camara said she noticed that many customers were asking for a more traditional store model, adding that the timing “felt right” to open their first brick-and-mortar location.
Camara also stated in August that Kora’s first physical location will serve as a flagship hub for production, with plans to expand to other outposts in the future.
Featured Events
