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….

Until the day when I resume dinner interviews with people across the United States and even overseas, I’ll provide some updates on news of interest about some of the 131 people I’ve already met. Today’s post is about actor Fred Melamed, the 76th interviewee on Dining With Strangers and easily…

The other week, Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema invited me to tag along for a review of Gordon Ramsay’s new fish and chip shop (creatively titled Gordon Ramsay Fish & Chips) at The Wharf in D.C. The review was a chance to share my thoughts on the best way…

Actor/writer Jim Piddock, star of almost countless plays, television shows and movies — including Christopher Guest’s “Best In Show” — is baring all. In his new autobiography, “Caught with My Pants Down”, he dishes on his lengthy career and journey from England to Hollywood. Jim was the second interview on…

Had to come out of semi-hibernation to note a well-deserved award for Chef Frank Brigtsen. Frank is the owner of Brigtsen’s restaurant in New Orleans, where I met him for a dinner interview back in September 2017. It’s a local landmark and consistently one of the best reviewed restaurants in…

Happy 2022! Thank you to everyone who keeps checking on this site or stumbles upon it. Sadly, the dinner interviews are still on hold due to a number of complications (new job, old pandemic, and more) but hopefully one day I’ll get to finally do the 132nd meal with a…

Jane Lynch and Kate Flannery are back on the road to sing some songs. The hilarious actresses, featured together as the 116th dinner interview back in January 2019, have known each other for decades and turned their love of singing into some live shows — and they’ll be performing them…