Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
Gay adult model DeAngelo Jackson lost his virginity on screen during his first-ever sex video when he was 22. Ten years later he’s still in the porn industry, building a fanbase of thousands with his work for studios and the more recent sites like OnlyFans where he can make his…
The 26th interview I did was a November 2010 dinner in Manhattan (on the Empire State Building’s ground floor at the Heartland Brewery, NYC) talking with writer Kyle Michel Sullivan. He shared how he started working on fiction at college in Texas, and stepped up his passion for it after…
Actor Burt Young is perhaps best known as the character Paulie from the Rocky series of movies, but he’s also an avid painter and writer — things I discovered when I met him in Port Washington, New York, in October 2011 for the 39th Dining With Strangers interview. Now it’s your…
During his years working for the CIA as a counterterrorism analyst Aki Peritz had to keep his job a secret. Since leaving the agency he’s able to talk about it generally, and he’s enjoying a successful career as a consultant, writer, and teacher on the subject. But he still maintains…
The 25th Throwback Thursday is my interview back in October 2010 with former District council candidate Bryan Weaver. He was born in Oregon but is a long-time resident of DC, and spoke about why he loves the city and its residents so much and how he got involved in politics….
Louisa Hall, the ukulele-playing singer-songwriter featured as the 57th stranger on this site, will be performing in early August as part of the 10th anniversary of “The 9 Songwriter Series” — a group of musicians working together to play larger venues than they would be able to book alone. When…
In July 2010 I traveled to Philadelphia for a weekend to meet friends, and made time to do another Dining With Strangers interview. Today’s throwback is to the 24th stranger; restaurant critic blogger and photographer Albert Yee. He moved to the city several years ago knowing little about it, but…
Want a good laugh? Check out comedian Alex English on his visit to Washington, DC, this weekend. Alex was the 112th stranger featured on this site; we met in his hometown of New York last October for a lengthy breakfast chat about how he first got interested in standup comedy…
The 23rd Throwback Thursday is the second of two interviews from my July 2010 trip to California; this one with Winston Geiseke who at the time was managing editor of a blog for the gay porn publishing company Unzipped that produced magazines and more. We met at Dear John’s Restaurant in Culver…
Sad news courtesy of the Washington City Paper’s Laura Hayes, who reports that Dean Gold will soon close his DC Italian-inspired restaurant Dino’s Grotto. In May 2018 I met Dean for dinner at his restaurant for the 106th Dining With Strangers interview. It was his second attempt at making a…