Ines Verbeke is cycling through America. She was born in America but raised in Belgium, and long yearned to explore her country of birth. Taking a break from her career, she’s finally getting to see the States. Earlier this year, she flew across the Atlantic with a vague plan of…
Margarita’s Merry Christmas
This festive post is really a nostalgic throwback Tuesday in disguise, but ssssh. To get you in the holiday spirit, here’s a reminder of that time in 2009 I spent sipping wine and singing Christmas carols with Cuban singing sensation Margarita Pracatan. We met at her apartment in Manhattan, and…
Give My Love To Hull
Hull, England, is a place where I spent many years of my life — and now former dining stranger Lorraine Bowen has written a song about the city. Although I’ve lived in Washington, DC, for 11 years now and counting, I spent my (rather plump) childhood and teenage years —…
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
A brief update on Michael Hitchcock, the 65th dining stranger. Michael, a well-known actor and writer (including work for the television show Glee and several Christopher Guest movies such as Best In Show) is now a co-executive producer and writer on the CW comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I met Michael…
Interview 82: The Swiss Ambassador
Martin Dahinden is the Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States. He’s also the 83rd stranger to dine with me for this site. His staff at the Swiss Embassy were incredibly generous to arrange an evening meal last week for Martin and me, taking place at the gorgeous Swiss Residence…
In Transit
There’s an interesting new site launched called In Transit, in which blogger Evy approaches random strangers while traveling and asks them for their life story. As described on her “About The Blog” page, In Transit “explores the stories and lives of people who are waiting in areas of transit. Why…
Interview 81: Night Of The DC Dead
Vaughn Irving wants to scare you senseless. He’s one of the creative minds behind DC Dead, a temporary attraction for Halloween. Groups of people sign up to enter an abandoned building and must attack — or in my case, more likely run screaming from — hordes of zombies that have…
Podcasting With Strangers
Just wanted to say a thank you to the podcast Take 3 for mentioning Dining With Strangers. The weekly podcast by Danielle Sills and Sara Shookman of WKYC Channel 3 in Cleveland, Ohio, features local and national news and cultural discussions. I’m honored their thought my website was interesting enough…
Welcome To Night Vale
It’s always nice to see former dining strangers enjoying success. So I was suitably giddy to see actor Cecil Baldwin (the 10th stranger) appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. He was on the show to promote the podcast Welcome To Night Vale, presented as a radio…
Fred Melamed Follow-Up
Here’s a brief follow-up on what actor Fred Melamed (stranger 76) has been up to since we got dinner in Beverly Hills in May. First, he’s one of the actors in the new Hulu series Casual. During our meal at the Palm (accompanied by Fred’s wonderful wife Leslee Spieler Melamed)…