ENO Wine Bar’s recently appointed Wine Director, Sabrina Kroeger, brings a fresh perspective to Georgetown’s neighborhood wine bar. With a career spanning across 5 countries, Kroeger brings with her a unique approach to service and a passion for Virginia wineries, admiring the industries’ investment to increase the quality of knowledge, training, and production of their wine.
Originally from Paderborn, Germany, Kroeger studied at Shannon College of Hotel Management in County Claire, Ireland and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Degree and a Diploma in International Hotel Management. Her final thesis was on the topic of Hotel Loyalty, a qualitative Study of Management and Guest Perceptions. Always having a strong interest in wine, she formally started studying to be a sommelier in 2006, became a member of the Guild of Sommeliers, and received recognition as a certified sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers in November 2014.
Kroeger began her hospitality career at Hotel Arts in Barcelona, Spain, a Ritz Carlton Hotel, where she opened the hotel’s outdoor pool bar, Marina. After developing the success of Marina, she returned to County Clare, Ireland to learn the ins and outs of Irish cuisine at Bunratty Castle Hotel’s bar, Kathleen’s.
Crossing seas and arriving in Washington, DC she trained for a year at The Dupont Circle Hotel organizing Room Service, managing Café Dupont, and ensuring flawless execution of food and beverage for banquets, meetings, and other hotel events.
Kroeger returned to Europe and expanded her Food and Beverage knowledge at the VOX Bar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin, Germany. With a desire to deepen her knowledge of satisfying the customer, she later accepted a position as the Business Excellence Coordinator at The Doyle Collection in London, overseeing service standards for 11 hotels.
After two years in Europe, Kroeger returned to Café Dupont at The Dupont Circle Hotel as Restaurant Manager and was quickly promoted to Assistant Food and Beverage Manager. In May 2014, Kroeger joined ENO Wine Bar as an Assistant Manager. In this position she revamped the food offerings and hosted over 50 private parties educating guest on the different aspects of wine. In conjunction with ENO Wine Bar’s corporate wine director, she expanded the wine list to over 300 wines with hopes to increase it to 400 wines this year. Her passion for Virginia wine is shown through frequent visits to wineries and unique relationships established with winemakers that resulted in adding 10 Virginia wineries to ENO’s wine list. Within months of her arrival, Kroeger increased revenues by building a strong and well versed team while delivering excellent service in a casual and friendly atmosphere that would establish regular customers.
As Wine Director, Kroeger is excited to develop the neighborhood wine bar’s culture by expanding the experience of wine to its guest, creating new and exciting Sunday wine classes and focusing on introducing lesser known varieties of wine to the wine list.
When Kroeger is not searching for world class wine or hidden gems produced by wineries around the world, she likes to cycle, snowboard, or relax with a good book.