Interviewing strangers over a meal since 2008 (as featured in the Washington Post)
Kate Flannery (Meredith from “The Office”), the 116th dinner stranger along with her friend Jane Lynch, has a memoir coming out next month. “Overserved” is out December 1 from Gallery Books. In it, Kate talks about being a bar owner’s daughter who waited tables, sang backup and took bit parts…
“Virality is not necessarily substantive,” says Annie Nardolilli, half of the D.C. duo Griefcat, whose song “I Already Took Off My Bra” has racked up 50 million views and was shared by Viola Davis. For the 148th interview, I met Annie and her bandmate Louisa Hall for dinner at La…
Tom Marolda, the 144th stranger, has finally put out his 2026 album as his one man band, The Toms. “Make My Day” arrived October 2. It’s a 12 track album that the band’s Bandcamp page counts as the 25th Toms release, with songs like “Another Nervous Breakdown,” “Kings & Wizards”…
Toyin Alli was already running two businesses out of a single sandwich when I caught up with her at Union Market back in May 2019 – cooking each morning at a shared incubator kitchen, then splitting the food between her Puddin’ stand and her food truck, Biggie, a $2,000 former…
Zeb Soanes, the 28th stranger, has a packed run of performing dates across England over the next few months. After a long and successful radio presenting career, Zeb stays busy with concerts, writing children’s books, and now theatre – currently touring “Two Halves of Guinness,” his one-man show about Sir…
Mikko Kosonen was days from his restaurant’s first anniversary when I sat down with him back in April 2019 for the 118th dinner interview. He was already exhausted – 170-person weddings, embassy dinners, a World Bank sit-down, all in the same week. “I almost lost my belief in the whole…
By day Burcin “Kaia” Dalkanat works a full-time job in the DC area. Nearly every night and weekend, she’s the self-shot, one-woman operation behind My Food Adventures DC, a nine-year-old Instagram account with more than 20,000 followers covering restaurants across DC, Maryland and Virginia – on a strict, self-imposed cap…
Steve Hayes reviews movies online with a consistent approach: “I don’t want to criticize, I just get excited, and if I like it, I want other people to like it. And if you don’t enjoy it, that’s okay, but just try it,” he told me during the 117th interview, then…
Jonn Elledge – the writer who took me through the history of the world in 47 borders back in January 2025 for the 131st dinner interview – has a new book and a U.K. tour to go with it. We met at Bellanger in London to discuss “A (Brief) History…
Look for the 147th interview at the end of the month. But today, a spotlight on news from another all-time favorite meal with a stranger: Fred Melamed – the 76th interviewee – is back working with Larry David. Fred appears in the seventh episode of HBO’s “Life, Larry and the…