Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
Got an interesting job, an odd hobby or a fascinating life story? Let me interview you about it over dinner. Dining With Strangers is a long-running interview series I started back in late 2008. The premise is simple: I invite someone I’ve never met to share their story over a…
“I’m going to compare ourselves to some greats now, so please forgive me – Burns and Allen. We know who we are and we know how to set each other up.” Jane Lynch arrived to the 116th dinner interview at Hugo’s Restaurant in West Hollywood ready to fix the blinds,…
Azusa Sheshe Dance – the singer and actress featured as the 142nd dinner interview – is celebrating a decade of New York artistry this year, and could use our help getting to the Summer Cabaret Conference later this month to mark it. Since moving to the city from Memphis, Tennessee,…
By day Nick Sevilla is a middle school math teacher in Germantown, Maryland. By night – and most weekends – he’s “Mr. 8 That,” a TikTok food creator with over 25,000 followers watching him eat his way through the DMV’s hidden gems, from Nigerian restaurants in Wheaton to food trucks…
“Broken Sword,” a point-and-click adventure game by Charles Cecil (the 127th dining stranger) is becoming a film. Variety reports that Charles, who heads Revolution Software, will produce the movie with Noirin Carmody and Story Kitchen, and Evan Spiliotopoulos – the screenwriter for Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” – writing…
“Get the early show if you can — look at the state of me, I’m not even buying green bananas anymore.” Bernie Clifton was 82 and two days from the end of a pantomime run when I caught up with him for coffee in Hull in December 2018. In the…
Pete Gardner spent decades as one of the hardest-working people in comedy that you’d never heard of. Improv stages in Chicago, guest spots on TV, near-misses that would have broken most people’s resolve. Then came “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” the musical comedy series where he played the lovable Darryl Whitefeather – and…
Happy anniversary to Mikko Kosonen, who opened his Nordic restaurant on R Street NW eight years ago because, as he told me in the 118th dinner interview, nobody else in Washington was doing it. The former Finnish embassy chef has been educating D.C. diners about his type of food ever…
“If we don’t talk about someone’s criminal backstory then we’re just a cooking school and who gives a shit?” Mike Curtin doesn’t sugarcoat things. The CEO of DC Central Kitchen sat down with me for breakfast at Unconventional Diner in December 2018, just weeks before the organization marked its 30th…
Cher. Bon Jovi. Imagine Dragons. Music from the films “Stayin’ Alive” and “Rocky.” If you’re familiar with these names or titles, you’ve probably heard Tom Marolda’s work – you just didn’t know it. The Grammy-nominated songwriter, performer and producer has spent decades as one of music and Hollywood’s most dependable…