Illustration by Jonny Ruzzo
From Virginia Beach, Erman Baradi is a writer, poet, event producer, filmmaker, and entrepreneur with big dreams. In the fall, the founder of Foodies + New Friends launched the 100 Cities Project, which aims to connect strangers over dinner in cities across the country, sets up shop in Greater Cincinnati.
How did you come up with the initial concept and why did you decide to expand it?
The whole mission is to connect people in a time when we’re usually staring at a screen all day or staying at home ordering takeout. The sad truth is loneliness exists everywhere. There’s a desire to feel like you belong. This feeling exists in every city, big and small. I utilized my background in producing film and music industry nights in Los Angeles, New York City, Miami, Toronto, and even London to form these dinners. The mindset was that at the bigger mixers, you can get lost in the shuffle, so these smaller dinner meets are an alternative for those who prefer the more intimate nights out. Our work would be easier if we just stuck to the cities we knew, like L.A. and NYC. However, if you look at the bigger picture, people suffer from depression everywhere in every city, so while coordinating dinners has challenges if you throw the net wide, I don’t want to leave any stone unturned. You can be impacting someone’s life in Covington, Kentucky, as much as, say, Chicago.
What I did this year was copy and paste a list of 1,000 cities according to population. I took the time to make a page for every single one of them. My goal was to see which cities had bites, even just one, because that’s a launching point. Even if there’s a city with just one interest so far, that makes think, “OK, there’s a need here. People are seeking companions in this city.” Over the year, we’ve had at least one bite in over 600 cities. Yes, that’s overwhelming, and at this point in time, I can’t cater specifically to all of them, but again, it’s about seeing where the need exists. The 100 Cities Project is a list of cities that we plan to have deeper roots in over time, so once we have more resources and manpower, these specific cities will have more than just dinners. Perhaps we can do the occasional mingles and mixers when get the ball rolling more. My ultimate wish for these cities, if I had a magic wand and could make it all happen right now, is that we’d have a strong enough community in each to do things that give back to the community.
Do you consider yourself a foodie?
I love food! If I was a billionaire, I’d just spend my life experiencing different restaurants and traveling just for food. I just got Meta glasses so who knows, maybe food vlogging is in order? I enjoy trying out new cuisines and foods from different cultures. Some people like to stick to the basics, and some will try off the wall food. I’m somewhere in the middle! I don’t want to try anything too crazy, but I’d love to experience the restaurants themselves. How is the ambience and the food service is addition to the food? As much as I love food, I think I’d more so enjoy experiencing the businesses themselves.
What foods did you grow up eating? Did that have any influence on this project?
I’m Filipino so we ate a lot of Filipino food at home. I basically eat Filipino food multiple times a week. Some of it is acquired taste. I do feel fortunate that my tastebuds were introduced to different foods growing up. It’s allowed me to enjoy a variety of food more. I also love Mediterranean, Italian, and Mexican. Then again, as I get older, I want to expand my palate even more.
What do you think are the benefits of having dinner with someone you don’t know?
For one, it expands your network. Oftentimes, we get people who are new to their city, so it’s a necessity to connect with new faces. Also, there’s a thrill to meeting other people basically blindly. It’s not dating, so it’s not that kind of nervousness that’s factored in. Meeting up with someone you don’t know via social media first is helpful because there’s a clean slate. You don’t have any biases based on their political views or their religious views or anything like that prior to meeting them, so you see them for who they are in real life, not a caricature of how you may feel of people from certain walks of life.
Have you heard any stories of people who’ve met at one of your events hanging out afterwards?
The number one response we get is registrants saying their group is planning to meet up again. That gives me a sigh of relief because when you’re coordinating people to meet, the worst scenario is getting folks who don’t vibe. While we do our best to coordinate based on similar interests, sometimes it’s just a matter of who’s available to meet that day. We can only plan with what we’re given, so if you have two people in their 60s and two people in their 30s who signed up tonight, we either ask them if they’d prefer another night or if they still wish to meet. If they still wish to meet, we can only pray for the best outcome! My other favorite reply is when someone signs up because it’s his or her birthday and were in need of company that day, and our platform allowed them to make connections.
How many of the dinners do you plan to attend throughout the entire project? Which cities are you most excited about?
I travel when I can, especially for bigger projects and larger events, but I drop in whenever I’m in a city and there just happens to be dinner coordinated that night. We started branching off into smaller towns with under 50,000 citizens. I’m excited to see where those go.
If you’ve attended events in other cities, what’s been your favorite meal so far?
I’m a bit biased because Los Angeles was my second home for a while. I enjoyed République. It wasn’t casual dining, yet it wasn’t super expensive either like fine dining. They serve modern French and the restaurant itself is a vibe. (Don’t you hate it when you pay a lot for food and don’t get full? I actually got full!)
If you’re not in attendance for each event, who represents the 100 Cities Project on your behalf?
Fortunately, we have ambassadors in some cities to host, but at large, we mostly coordinate remotely but are very accessible. There can be a dinner going on in Australia and I’m up at 3 a.m. making sure everyone arrived okay.
What have you heard about Cincinnati’s food scene? Is there anything that excites you about what you’ve heard?
I’m a fan of breweries and trying out new beers, too! I’ve read online that Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky has restaurants by award-winning chefs and tons of breweries. If I ever visit, I’d have to make a checklist of where to go. We also support locally owned businesses, so it’s cool to know the regions has tons of that as well.
How are you choosing what restaurants to visit in each city?
We ask registrants what their favorite foods are and if there’s a common thread then we do our best to oblige. Other than that, we check out OpenTable, Resy, and other reservation sites to see which places are under two dollar signs and can cater to both meat eaters and veggie lovers. Supporting local businesses is a huge factor so if it’s a ma and pop place, we’re all for it.
Have you already started dinners in Greater Cincinnati area?
We have! We’re hoping that the local membership grows throughout 2026 so we can coordinate a steady flow of dinners. We have bites for our general public dinners and our entrepreneur dinners in Cincinnati.
For ticket information, visit the Foodies + New Friends’ Eventbrite link.
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