Shaun never planned on becoming a bartender. Growing up in Michigan, Shaun Traxler was working as a mechanic at a rural bowling alley when the bartender called out. When Shaun was asked to go behind the bar and help out by opening a few beers, he said yes. He quickly caught the hospitality bug.
After college, Shaun moved to Florida and continued working as a bartender, where the job became more than temporary. He was making good money, especially as a 21-year-old, and, most importantly, he loved the social component. He genuinely enjoyed working with people and speaking with customers behind the bar. His degree in psychology was not opening doors, but bartending was.
Eventually, Shaun followed his family to Arkansas, arriving in a completely new place and starting from scratch. Arriving in Fayetteville with nearly a decade of industry experience, he had to start at the bottom. His first job was washing dishes at Sideways on Dickson Street before working his way up behind the bar and eventually making his way into management.
He worked at Sideways for nearly six years, making countless memories and getting his first introduction to the community that would become such an important part of his career.
From Sideways, Shaun moved to Vault, where he spent seven years developing his passion for whiskey, bourbon and craft cocktails. Whereas before he typically stuck with simpler drinks, here he was able to experiment. Working at Vault created opportunities, allowing him to travel for industry conferences, create new drinks and build a team of his own. His passion for craft cocktails began at Sideways as early as 2012, with some of those cocktail menus being even more adventurous than the ones he later created for Vault. His skills were further honed during his time at Vault.
For Shaun, the people on his team have always been the most meaningful part of his job.
“Every place that I have worked at or managed, what makes it so hard to leave is the staff,” he said.
Many of the people he worked with and met at Vault remain close to him today, including Allen Quintana, whom Shaun hired years ago and who eventually became the bar’s general manager and Shaun’s best friend.
Shaun now leads the beverage program at Chūō Izakaya in Rogers, where he helped build the bar program from the ground up, but he also knows Fayetteville remains his home.
“Fayetteville is still my vibe,” he said. “There’s something about the people and the energy. It really is home.”
This sense of community has shaped Shaun’s career, along with the way he approaches bartending. He describes hospitality as an exercise in reading people, listening to them and adapting to their needs, a skill he calls “chameleoning” himself. While doing that can often become exhausting, it has also taught him how to connect with people on a deeper level.
“There are these really pure and true moments with other humans,” he explained. “A real deep connection can be made, even within the first hour of meeting someone.”
He also connects to the process of creating cocktails. Rooted in his love of cooking and experimentation in the kitchen, along with a healthy appreciation for puns, he created his new fall cocktail, Squash the Beef.
Available October 13, the fall drink combines Japanese kabocha squash, miso, honey and papaya with sweet potato shochu, tart cherry, lemon, pineapple and Haku vodka fat-washed with A5 Wagyu fat. The garnish itself reflects Shaun’s approach to sustainability. Papaya seeds are dehydrated and ground into a peppery, mustard-like powder around the glass, while torched rosemary adds an autumnal aroma.
For Shaun, creating a drink like this, full of creativity and whimsy, is the culmination of years spent tasting, cooking and experimenting in the kitchen and behind the bar.
Looking back, Shaun explains that he is most grateful for the opportunities people in the industry have provided him: the owners who trusted him creatively, the mentors who helped open doors for him and the teams he was able to build along the way.
“I have been fortunate to have these opportunities,” Shaun said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.”