Caroline’s Donuts Opens Its Doors in Bed Stuy

A new donut shop has taken up residence in the long-vacant street level space on the corner of Ralph Avenue and Decatur Street and, so far, the reviews are glowing.

Caroline’s Donuts opened its doors to the public on July 14, a fitting Bastille Day celebration for its French owners, couple Thierry Locatelli and Caroline Lameda. It is the pair’s first eatery in New York City, a place where Locatelli says he has been involved in the food service industry since 1997.

The initial plan for the donut store was just to do wholesale, Lameda told Brownstoner, and currently there’s still no sign or banner marking the building as a retail store. But as the duo was fitting out the space, a number of neighbors stopped in and asked for a donut counter. So they made one.

Caroline’s Donuts sells to restaurants, stores and catering companies. It is open to the public Tuesday through Friday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The donuts are made from scratch by Locatelli, who trained in France, and a team of six people using high quality ingredients, and are always served fresh.

“In the south of France we have beignets, and they are very similar, so I said why don’t we do donuts,” Lameda said. “It’s a beignet in the shape of a donut, and we have our own recipe.”

The traditional glazed, sugared and chocolate donuts sit alongside more unusual flavors, including lemon, banana, apricot and mango, and there are glazed braids and filled donuts to round out the menu. The regular donuts go for $3 a piece and braids and filled donuts will set you back $4.

Locatelli told Brownstoner the couple is very excited to be in the neighborhood, and a number of neighbors who stopped by said they felt the same. To date, Caroline’s Donuts has three reviews on Google and all are five stars, raving about the flavor.

Lameda added the Bed Stuy block has the neighborhood feel she remembers from France, where everyone is chatting and sharing news, and both she and Locatelli had been very surprised by how warm the reception was, and by how many people said they want the store to be there.

“It was the neighbors who told us to open, we didn’t have any intention to open a boutique store anywhere,” Lameda said. “The people are so nice, we have never seen that in our life. Of course we think on the wholesale and catering aspect [it] will succeed, but on the boutique we don’t know — everything is step by step.”

She said with Locatelli’s experience in French baking, they have plans to add eclairs, lemon meringue and chocolate mousse desserts to the menu, and possibly even include them in wholesale if things go well. But for now, they are focusing on getting everything up and running.

Prior to the donut store, 202 Ralph Avenue housed Brooklyn Burger and Brew. The restaurant appears to have closed in 2015. A bar called Uncle Fred’s opened in August 2019 but shuttered in March 2020 thanks to the pandemic. The space has been vacant since.

The opening comes as Fort Greene staple Dick and Jane’s is slated to open in the old Casablanca location on Malcolm X Boulevard this month, and new coffee shop Botani is getting ready to open its doors on Lewis Avenue.

[Photos by Anna Bradley-Smith]

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