Boro Park Flashback: Korn’s Bakery

By Yehudit Garmaise
   Long before Korn’s Bakery employed 200 people and had three locations in Boro Park, Avroham Yitzchak Korn, a”h, owned a bakery in Kisvárda, Hungary, at which his son, Mr. Yidel Korn, a”h, who was then a yeshiva bochur, helped out.
   In 1949, after they both survived the war, Mr. Korn, who was approximately 50 years old, and his son, who was 25, came to New York, where together they opened the first location of Korn’s bakery on the Lower East Side for a year, until Mr. Yidel Korn opened his own bakery Williamsburg.
   In 1950, Reb Avrohom Yitzchak Korn, a”h, moved to Boro Park, where he bought a bakery at 4322 15th Ave., which now has a small shop for walk-in customers and serves as a wholesale bakery that sells to catering companies, restaurants, and grocery stores.
   Now, Reb Avrohom Yitzchak Korn’s sons-in-law: Reb Motcha Berkowitz and Reb Moshe Leib Stern run the 15th Avenue location.
   After spending a few years in Williamsburg, in 1955, Mr. Yidel Korn, a”h, returned to Boro Park to buy Korn’s bakery from his father, who then left the bakery business to buy a Monticello bungalow colony that he ran for 20 years.
   In 1959, Mr. Yidel Korn, a”h, bought a second location for Korn’s bakery at 5004 16th Ave., which is now the bakery’s main retail location, where many Boro Parkers stop in daily to pick up fresh bread, rugalach, kokosh cake, babka, and marble cake.
   Thirty years ago, one of Mr. Yidel Korn’s two daughters, Mrs. Chaye Klein opened her own small location of Korn’s Bakery at 4304 13th Ave.
   Although Reb Shia Korn modestly said that his family’s bakery “doesn’t specialize in anything,” many who grew up in Boro Park say that every yeshiva, school, and house in the neighborhood buys and serves Korn’s fresh bread and bakery.
    What are Korn’s best-selling flavors?
   “Everything is chocolate,” said Mr. Shia Korn with a laugh.
   Mr. Shia Korn now runs the bakery’s 16th Avenue location with his older brothers, Chesky and Velvy, who agreed, “We are very original, and everyone tells us that whatever they buy here from A to Z is delicious.”
   The next Korn generation is hard at work providing Yidden with fresh baked goods, as Velvy’s sons Avrumi, Shia, and Moshy also work in the stores, and Chesky’s son, Heshy Korn works in the Lakewood store, which is one of the franchises of Korn’s bakery. Other Korn’s franchises are in Williamsburg and Flatbush.
   One former Boro Parker, who grew up two blocks from Korn’s 15th Avenue location fondly remembered that his family headed to Korn’s several times a week for fresh bread, multicolor cookies, and apple strudel. For special occasions, such as anniversaries and birthdays, his family bought cakes at Korn’s that cost $4.50 in the 1970s and sometimes featured a candied cherry in the middle.
   For years, longtime Boro Park residents say that people from the neighborhood have stopped into Korn’s on Thursdays: the one day a week the bakery serves its special potatonik, which is similar to similar to potato kugel, but lighter, as the recipe includes a lot of yeast.
   Reb Shia Korn loves working at the bakery, but, especially on Fridays, when the neighborhood is bustling with Shabbos preparations and errands.
   “I love it when tons of people are coming in to shop,” Mr. Shia Korn said. “I see that everyone is buying challahs and different goodies for Shabbos, and they look like they are going to enjoy what they buy. It is very good to make people happy.”