The Underground LA Kitchen Loved By Snoop Dogg

If Snoop Dogg orders enough food to sell out a small business, it's probably worth checking it out. The business in question is Trap Kitchen, founded in 2013 by former Blood and Crip gang members turned chefs Malachi Jenkins, known as Spank, and Roberto Smith, known as News. The duo launched the project from Smith's grandmother's kitchen in Compton, California, and initially started out by marketing themselves on Instagram. Now celebrities and customers flock to Trap Kitchen in multiple cities.

Trap Kitchen's food does not fit neatly into one category and is best described as a fusion of soul food, American comfort food, and Southern cuisine, with occasional Asian influences. One of their most famous plates has consistently been fried chicken with waffles, offered in flavors like blueberry or cinnamon apple. According to BlackEnterprise, the first dish sold by Trap Kitchen was an enchilada pie, with Jenkins and Smith taking orders through social media and delivering them personally, selling out on their first day.

They then continued expanding their menu and customer reach, working out of whatever kitchen was offered to them by friends and neighbors in Compton. Even as an Instagram-based ghost kitchen run by just two people, their food and branding were strong enough to attract orders from Snoop Dogg. The pair told Top Chef World in a YouTube video interview in 2020 that Snoop Dog would call at random times and buy up all the plates they could offer.

Trap Kitchen has expanded well beyond Compton. In 2018, Trap Kitchen opened a food truck in Portland, and later launched several trucks in Los Angeles in the years before the pandemic. The brand has also hosted pop-ups in cities such as San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Miami.

However, Trap Kitchen does not have a brick-and-mortar location and instead focuses on pop-ups and catering. Despite their fame through celebrity customers, being featured in news articles, and shows like The Today Show, the business still operates mostly as it always has. The menu is posted on Instagram, and customers order through the social media app for delivery or pickup.

In a recent post, Trap Kitchen offered a Super Bowl BBQ menu, which included a choice of meat, like chicken or baby back ribs, and sides like their famous mac n' cheese, loaded baked beans, or potato salad. The Trap Kitchen brand has also expanded through four cookbooks written by the founders, featuring their signature recipes and cocktails.