Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
The seventh throwback Thursday is to my May 2009 dinner in Brooklyn with single mother Lynda Eselp, who maintains a relentlessly upbeat outlook on life despite some past set-backs. In more up-to-date news, I’m tentatively scheduled to have the 118th dinner with a stranger next week in New York City….
The sixth throwback Thursday is to my March 2009 dinner with circus clown VeeKay (Diego Barquinero) at The Counter in Santa Monica, California. Diego has a fascinating story about how he got into a career under the Big Top. When we met, he showed up to the interview still in his work…
Frank Brigtsen, chef and owner of his namesake New Orleans restaurant Brigtsen’s, has been nominated for Outsanding Service in this year’s James Beard awards. I met Frank in September 2017 for the 100th dinner interview. He talked me through a number of menu options, explaining in detail the thought behind…
Continuing the sequential throwback Thursdays, here’s my fifth dinner interview — a meal way back in March 2009 with Dan Silverman, creator of the popular DC-area blog Prince of Petworth, which evolved into the current PoPville We met at the since-closed CommonWealth restaurant in Columbia Heights. At the time, Dan…
On Wednesday, Brigham Young University’s radio show Constant Wonder interviewed me about Dining With Strangers. It’s hosted by Marcus Smith and is says it wants listeners to “discover, explore, and reengage with the wonders of the world around you” I had a fun chat with Marcus, who was curious about…
If you’ve not read it yet, the 116th dinner is online — it’s my lunch with actresses Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery. It took place last month in West Hollywood, California, and I discovered (and wrote) a lot, including to never sit Jane by a window without blinds, and that,…
Actresses Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery are perhaps best known to many from their comedic roles on the television shows Glee and The Office respectively, but for the last few years they’ve sold out venues with a series of music revues — their latest, Two Lost Souls, opened in September. Last month, on a trip…
My third dinner interview was in December 2008, my first time meeting Margarita Pracatan, a Cuban singer living in New York who found fame performing the closing numbers for the Clive James talk show in England back in the 1990s. After I started this site, I knew I wanted to…
For Dining With Strangers articles I try to avoid returning to the same dining establishments after featuring them — but on Wednesday I made an exception when I returned to the residence of Martin Dahinden, Swiss ambassador to the United States. Martin and I first had dinner at his residence…
Here’s the second Throwback Thursday; my November 2008 interview with actor and writer Jim Piddock. He’s well known for his role alongside comedy icon Fred Willard as the commentators at the dog show in Christopher Guest’s fake documentary Best In Show. But Jim’s career started many years before that role, as…