Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
Here’s the 78th Throwback Thursday interview: July 2015 dinner with Meredith Denbow at Jyoti Indian Cuisine in DC. Since moving to Washington, DC, a few years ago, Meredith has been working to grow a local branch of Fuckup Nights. The unusually named organization hosts seminars across the globe where people…
Given that I’ve put dinner interviews on hiatus until the coronavirus pandemic is over, there won’t be a festive-themed meal with a stranger this year like my December 2011 dinner with Santa Claus. Instead, I wanted to post something in memory of my late friend and former interviewee Margarita Pracatan….
Continuing the throwbacks to prior interviews in order, here’s the 77th interview which took place in June 2015. Jenny Wang was born in China but spent her childhood in Connecticut and rural Pennsylvania, before moving to the District of Columbia to work in public relations. During dinner at Marrakech in…
Adult model DeAngelo Jackson (the 121st dinner interviewee) is among the several contenders for an accolade at the upcoming XBIZ Awards, which is an annual awards ceremony dedicated to the adult entertainment industry. The event has been running for more than 15 years and has all the glitz and glamor…
Today’s Throwback Thursday feature is my 76th interview; a dinner with actor Fred Melamed and his wife Leslee Spieler Melamed in Beverly Hills. We met at The Palm in May 2015 for a very lengthy and highly enjoyable meal, learning about their life stories. Fred has a lengthy filmography that…
Steve Hayes (dinner interviewee 118) will be co-hosting an online event on Sunday December 13 at 8pm where he promises to reveal the secrets of dubbing voiceovers throughout Hollywood’s history. Steve is the creator of the YouTube series “Tired Old Queen at the Movies” where he adlibs for about five…
Continuing the sequential Throwback Thursday features of past dinner features, here’s the 75th interview: my May 2015 dinner at the landmark Los Angeles restaurant Musso & Frank Grill with its proprietor Mark Echeverria. The restaurant opened in 1919 and has catered to Hollywood celebrities and regular diners alike. It has…
The utterly charming BBC radio presenter Zeb Soanes (the 28th dinner interviewee) in recent years has also turned to writing children’s books about Gaspard, “the handsomest fox in London” and his adventures in England’s capital. Zeb writes the books along with illustrator and author James Mayhew, and they recently announced…
The 74th Throwback Thursday feature is a dinner from an April 2015 trip to Italy for my eldest brother’s wedding. I was in Milan alone for a night and posted on craigslist seeing if anyone wanted to be interviewed for Dining With Strangers. City resident Federico Leidi got in touch,…
Legendary Hollywood character actor Stephen Tobolowsky (the 66th dinner interviewee) is also a great storyteller, writing two books of anecdotes about his fascinating life and career. He also shares tales from his past on The Tobolowsky Files, a podcast that took a hiatus starting in June 2017 but recently returned and…