Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
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…
Last January on the Dining With Strangers Facebook page and Twitter, I started posting the old dinner interviews in order every Thursday for (you’ve probably guessed) Throwback Thursday. To get the site itself updated more frequently, I’m starting the feature here. Click here for the very first meal, with my…
Bernie Clifton, 82, is a legendary British comedian and singer, perhaps best known for a slapstick routine running around on stage in a goofy ostrich costume while he cracks punny jokes. But I recently learned there’s much more to his life story, from his early handyman jobs through to recent…
Next month, the DC Central Kitchen will mark 30 years of taking donated wasted food and turning it into meals for the homeless and non-profits. That’s just one of many services the organization offers, such as a culinary training program for jobless adults so they can get work and “leave…
I forgot about this, but late last month was the 10th anniversary of Dining With Strangers. The first blog post went up on November 25, 2008, in which I announced the launch of the site. I also linked to the inaugural dinner with a stranger, #1 My Dinner With Joseph….
Mark Bucher is co-owner of Medium Rare, a restaurant business with four locations in the Washington, DC, area offering a very simple menu: bread, followed by salad, then two servings of steak frites. It’s simple yet successful. Medium Rare frequently appears on local and national “best of” lists for steakhouses….
Late last month I was in Brooklyn and had the chance to interview Alex English. He’s a young comedian, writer and actor building his career in his adopted hometown of New York after moving there from Detroit without really knowing what he wanted to do with his life. In 2012,…
Last Friday I uploaded part one of a two-part interview with actress Donna Lynne Champlin, talking about how her discovery of metaphysics helped shape her career. Here’s part two of the interview, in which she charts the course of her career that started at the age of three when she…
Do you have an interesting life story? Want a free meal? Join me for dinner! Every Friday for the last few weeks I’ve been uploading new dinner interviews with people ranging from internet personalities to actors to the owner of a landmark New Orleans sandwich shop. Tomorrow I’ll post part…