The latest addition to Arlington’s Ballston Quarter is WHINO, a combination restaurant and art gallery on Ballston Quarter’s second level.
The restaurant’s owner and avid art collector Shane Pomajambo operated Art Whino, a pop-art gallery at National Harbor for nearly 10 years. It closed in 2017 when Pomajambo began planning for WHINO restaurant.
Chef Eleftherios Natas, whose resume includes El Centro and Graffiato in D.C., is in charge of the menu and kitchen at WHINO. The menu includes small and shareable plates such as smoked octopus, ricotta gnocchi and day boat scallops.
The 6,200-square-foot restaurant is big, with six different seating areas including a 25-seat open kitchen bar, a 51-foot-long cocktail bar and an 11-seat tasting bar.
The art, which will rotate monthly, includes large murals and much of it is pop art and pop surrealism.
WHINO will host regular art shows, many of which will showcase new artists, and the gallery will also have sculptures and collectables for sale.
WHINO is open Monday through Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Ballston Quarter also has a 25,000-square-foot indoor-outdoor Quarter Market with more than a dozen food vendors, making it the largest food hall in the D.C. area.
Ballston Quarter is the 850,000-square-foot redevelopment of the former Ballston Common Mall that included a complete overhaul of the mall itself and the addition of a 22-story residential building and new office space.