Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
Apologies for the dearth of updates since March, but Dining With Strangers is still on hold. At the start of the pandemic, I suspended my project of meeting strangers for meals at restaurants to interview them about their life stories — an idea at odds with lockdowns and social distancing….
Chef Deborah VanTrece, the 130th dinner stranger and owner of the restaurant Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours in Atlanta, is hosting a virtual launch party at 6pm on Tuesday March 16 for “The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul with Global Flavors.” “I’ll be cooking up a few recipes from the…
The 80th dinner interview was a reunion with several strangers in New Orleans. In September 2015, roughly one decade after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, I met with three long-time residents of the Crescent City who have previously been featured on Dining With Strangers, hosting a group meal at Antoine’s. In…
Medium Rare, the DC-based steak frites restaurant owned by the 113th dining stranger Mark Bucher, is planning an East Coast expansion. Mark told the Washington Business Journal this week that he’s looking to Baltimore as the next location for the restaurant, which offers diners a simple set menu of salad, freshly…
The 79th Throwback Thursday dinner happened in August 2015, when I met Barbara Crocker at the French restaurant Le Diplomate in DC. Barbara had just celebrated her 62nd birthday that month, but during the interview she told me she feels like she’s getting younger every year with her busy schedule…
Merry Christmas! If you’re looking for something festive to watch online today, check out “A California Christmas” on Netflix. In the film’s credits you’ll see that the cinematography was done by Brad Rushing, the 93rd dinner interviewee. I met Brad, who lives in Los Angeles, when he was on a…
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…