Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
Author Gary Krist — the 70th dinner interviewee back in 2015 — specializes in writing historical non-fiction about key moments in relatively recent U.S. history, including early 20th century New Orleans, Hollywood and more. I met the New York Times-bestselling writer to discuss Empire Of Sin, his book about the…
Want a free meal and to share your life story? Get in touch. I keep threatening this, but in 2025 Dining With Strangers will finally resume. I paused the site during the pandemic and then life intervened in the years since. Now I’m trying to sort out the first few…
Revolution Studios, the software company co-founded by 127th dinner interviewee Charles Cecil, is getting plaudits for the recently released Broken Sword: Reforged — an update to a landmark adventure game first released in 1996. The new version features remastered graphics, improved audio, reworked scenes and more to provide a fresh…
Actresses Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery — featured as the 119th dinner interview a few years ago — are hitting the road again with their popular festive show “A Swingin’ Little Christmas.” They’ll be joined by Tim Davis (Glee’s vocal arranger) and The Tony Guerrero Quintet for a show full…
Far too late in posting this sad news but I still wanted to pay tribute to the memory of singer and performer Matt Yee. Matt, the 96th stranger featured on this site, was diagnosed with liver cancer at the start of last year and unfortunately passed in December in his…
Steve Hayes, also known as the “Tired Old Queen At The Movies,” has a one-man show next month in New York. He’ll be performing “Quiz The Queen” which promises to be “an evening of hilarity, surprises and unexpected anecdotes as we try and stump [Steve] by showing him various clips…
Ben Claassen III, the artist behind the comic DIRTFARM and the 43rd stranger featured on this site, is taking part in the ongoing Artomatic in Washington, D.C. It’s a multimedia arts festival now in its 25th year, with dozens of local artists exhbiting their work, along with a marketplace where…
Actor Burt Young, perhaps best known for his recurring role as Paulie in the Rocky movie series, has died at 83. I had the incredible honor of meeting Burt for a very enjoyable afternoon in October 2011 for the 39th dinner interview. We met at his apartment in Port Washington,…
Medium Rare, which has three restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area, is expanding to New Orleans. As WTOP reports, Medium Rare recently opened a venue in the Crescent City featuring its unique, and very brief, menu of bread and butter, house salad and steak frites, with a secret sauce that…
Matt Yee needs your help. The exuberant entertainer, for decades a fixture on cruises around the world, is currently battling liver cancer. Matt was the 96th stranger interviewed for this site, and we met at a restaurant on a cruise ship somewhere in the Caribbean Sea back in January 2017….