Shane Pomajambo
Owner

Mario Xavier
Executive Chef

Patrick Young
General Manager

Jenn Steadman
Manager

ABOUT the team
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Shane Pomajambo
Owner

Having earned a Master of Architecture degree, while also curating lowbrow/pop surrealist art and nationwide mural installations, former New Yorker Pomajambo enjoys a large following for his popular art gallery, Art Whino. For 15 years, Pomajambo has been an active force in the Washington, D.C. art scene and has produced large-scale events at Art Basel in Miami, New York’s Comic Con, as well as the Richmond Mural Project, Austin Art Show, Heineken Mural Project in Atlanta, and the G40 Art Summit. Art Whino is now transitioning to WHINO, combining Pomajambo’s passion for art with his appreciation for entertaining around exception food and drink.

Patrick Young
General Manager

With over 20 years of restaurant experience, Young believes building a culture within a brand in order to operate as one cohesive high-performing team starts with each individual hire. “I am captivated by the idea of how much a person who works with us could potentially learn if we provide an atmosphere of higher level hands on education. I want our team members to have individual 'specialities' for which they pursue to gain a much deeper level of understanding within the themes of our concept: Art Curation, Food Concepts, Drink Builds, Training, or Social Media/Marketing.  The goal is to then share these insights with their fellow team members, the guests and our leadership team.  My team should learn from me, but I should also be learning from them.“ 

Young knows and values his people, “No one is a job/job title. They must be more. I hire the person, first and foremost, not the restaurant experience. No one that works with me will ever be treated as a number. We all need to engage more in what we do and strive to be better. Everyone must work to expand their understanding on some aspect of food, drink and the art world. Embrace what is around us and learn from local farms, vinyards, coffee roasteries, wineries, breweries and galleries to provide value. I want them all to understand that the restaurant world, like the art world, is an experience.”

“I'm dedicated to the culture I aim to build with our leadership team here at WHINO so that we can all offer something unique to the thousands of guests that join us weekly to experience something more than ‘just another restaurant'.’  And I am beyond proud of the incredible people to my left and to my right who are working hard every day to help achieve this.”

Jenn Steadman
Manger

Jenn hails from Long Island, NY, and found her passion for restaurants while attending college at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She quickly ascended to management at California Pizza Kitchen in Arlington, VA, where she worked for over six years. During this time, Steadman dove into the rapidly expanding local beer scene in the VA-DC-MD area, which has a plethora of craft breweries within a stone’s throw of each other.

Steadman plans to bring the creativity these brewers explore to the masses, providing a tailored experience one is hard pressed to find elsewhere. She is obsessed with doing on-the-ground research at different restaurants and bars, learning how to contribute something fresh and unique to the social dining arena. Her admiration for craftsmanship extends from the production side at vineyard, distillery and farm visits to meeting with curators, mixologists and chefs across the industry.