Five-Year Love Story Leads To New Prospect Heights Restaurant

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, NY — Mooliauno’s Trapp Kitchen, a new restaurant in Brooklyn, is the love child between the owner and her partner, the head chef.

Their five year romance over food led to the grand opening of the new Caribbean Latin American fusion restaurant, located at 621 Washington Ave., on Aug. 21, according to owner Tamarra Lawrence, whose partner is Chef Mooli S.

“It sounds cheesy, but it is a love story,” Lawrence told Patch on Friday. “We communicate with each other through food. When we first met each other he said, ‘I’m going to cook for you.’”

Lawrence said that she was “trapped” in love by her partner’s cooking, hence the name for the restaurant, which she described as an American melting pot.

“I’m Puerto Rican and Grenadian and the head chef is Jamaican and Haitian,” said
Lawrence.

The fusion restaurant has lobster ravioli, rasta pasta with jerk chicken, lamb chops with candied yams, belgian waffles, stuffed meatballs in spaghetti and the its very popular Mac Attack macaroni and cheese, are just a few of the cuisines Mooliauno’s Trapp Kitchen has to offer.

Trapp also has specialty drinks like a pineapple ginger blast, cucumber lemonade, and a pineapple sunrise with strawberries.

“He makes banana pudding,” Lawrence said about one of her partner’s desserts. “He also makes a peach cobbler spring roll that comes with ice cream and vanilla drizzle, fudge and caramel.”

The couple spent over a year trying to get the restaurant up and running during the pandemic.

“We got the place and totally renovated it,” the owner said. “It was hard. The contractors were delayed. Items were and other materials were delayed … There was a delay with everything. So I say to others, ‘just stick to it.’”

As for the food, Lawrence said, “it’s a twist to your everyday meal … the flavoring is a unique experience.”