Cleveland Park

Criticism

The Changing Heart of Service by Malik Wilson

December 2026

No one should go their whole lives without applying themselves to either retail or front-facing restaurant industry service. One really doesn't know about humanity, or oneself, or the strange inward optics binding coworkers, the voluptuous differences and attractions of the trade, or, most importantly, how one is changed oneself, through the process. 

As a medium of exchange, of disbursement, of process, and processing, 'service' goes beyond what it should be able to do and renders long possibilities of the heart and soul, of the mind and desire, of the need for work and the purposes to exclaim  something irreducibly human. 

Criticism

The Beauty of Wine by Malik Wilson

September 2026

Beloved by poets and philosophers, lovers and warriors, only wine has the power to "gladden the hearts of man", as King David wrote. Used to perform miracles, as a recipe and antidote for consolation, like anything else, it is what you make of it, but precisely and humbly and confidently entered into, nothing can beguile, assuage, or settle like wine. 

In The Beauty of Wine, Malik Wilson shares his own origin and ongoing story of wine - one of a daily kind of attention, intention, and pre-arranged mourning - a way to mark the time, and, if only instantaneously, pause it, in search of the things that matter most. 

Criticism/Photography

The Takoma Style by Malik Wilson

September 2026

"Style", properly described, is hosts values, considerations, ontologies, theories of beauty + design, ideal, principles, even truths. In The Beauty of the Takoma Style, Malik Wilson sings an elegy to a faded aristocracy, dappled things, a full, considered table. He argues that the 'elite feast' table, many bowls and petite plates spread out, food deeply flavorful, even painfully, limitingly so, teaches a kind of faith-in-practice for the best things life has to offer - a kind of ongoing study and wading into freedom. He also argues that this formulation makes the most American sense, an omni-style that demands a certain honesty, a certain music, a muted, robust consolation, and a wine big enough, adept enough, quick-on-its-feet and achy enough to wrap it all up in a bow. Both a theory of fellowship and an ongoing image of the table, The Beauty of the Takoma Style is our first statement of purpose, first argument for beauty. 

Photography

Beautiful Detritus: Love After Fellowship by Malik Wilson

December 2026

In this series of images, Malik Wilson displays the frayed, joyous formalism and lapsed presentation that characterizes the end of the meal, the silence after fellowship. Smudged glasses and collapsed plates, a lovingly ordered, disputed mess. The images point to a sacred kind of sexiness, muteness, tales of other rooms, other times, other people. 

Food Programs

Wine & Books - A Life Together

Fall 2026-2029

Wine and books - their full enjoyment - requires intention, attention, patience, and designation. It also calls out for a designation, a setting aside. The first requirement is material - money, a table, a food, company - all such things have to be arranged. But the second part is spiritual, for lack of a better world - it is the numinous that animates the body, the guides motives, ideals, hopes, dreams. 

Wine's ability as a motiving factor, as that crucial, mysterious, spice of life is legend. But few programs truly address the full range of how a man or a woman can truly abide with wine - taking full advantage of this unique hour in the wine world to sculpt, shape, build and enjoy - now, and for the years to come. 

Cookbook

The $20, $40, $120 Young Man's Cookbook by Brad Feickert and Malik Wilson

Fall 2026

Teaching a young man service is to show him a kind of beauty, a harnessing of the self, not just for the purposes of work, but towards the application of beauty. Of course, responsibility goes hand in hand with such things, but a better way to imagine that responsibility is in a broader framework - what we ought to render to ourselves, to our family, to our community. 

In The $20, $40, $120 Young Man's Cookbook, Brad Feickert and Malik Wilson shows how cooking need not be a lofty enterprise. In fact, they argue, the loftiest things about preparing food for oneself or others come through the simplicity of interaction, of giving and rendering with kindness, and sharing some of the beauty that one possesses. 

Apprenticeship 

"Knives In, Knives Out" by Brad Feickert and Malik Wilson

Fall 2026

One can be apolitical while still asserting that not every young man needs to be a theater major. There is dignity, even a kind of pragmatic spirituality in all work. Whether a butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker, work imports enduring metaphors to all those so engaged. In "Knives In, Knives Out", 3-4 young high school boys will learn some of the rudiments of butchery from Soko's experts. But more than the skills themselves is the central idea conveyed.

"You are like this knife you hold in your hand. You have the potential to inflict damage - upon yourself, your family, your community. But in learning how to wield this knife, and yourself, you can instead be a force of provision, protection. This same sharp knife in the surgeon's hands saves life. In learning how to hold your knife, you have the opportunity to do the same."

Students who completes the 4-month program will receive a SOKO Certificate and have an opportunity to continue their apprenticeship, with the expectation that they can one day become master butchers. 

Oral History/Documentary

Takoma Park by Malik Wilson

2026-2029

Though its "downtown" is small and humble, Takoma Park looms large in our imagination. It is where our founder, Malik Wilson, first dreamed, and it is what sustains him - and us - in the years since. In Takoma Park, Malik examines the history, folkways, and the emerging retail and restaurants of our beloved community. 

Oral History/Documentary

Restaurants by Malik Wilson

2026-2029

Our most democratic, Romantic places, restaurants capture something essential, ongoing, truthful. Simple palaces of hopes and dreams, they reveal what we esteem and find worthwhile. In this years-long undertaking, Takoma/Cleveland Park seeks to get to the root of how the beauty is produced, from those who serve.