Joe Arakawa
EDO Hospitality | Las Vegas, NV
April 2026
Joe Arakawa was a teenager when he first started cooking, cleaning, and bussing tables at his mother's restaurant in Hawaii. Despite this, he didn't initially pursue a career in hospitality. Following in the footsteps of his father, who was in the Coast Guard, Arakawa joined the Army in 2010 and did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan before returning to Hawaii in 2013 to pursue a bachelor's degree. He eventually dropped out and returned to hospitality, taking a barback position at Eight50, where he worked under Bartender Kelly Jeffers. In 2014, Arakawa followed Jeffers to Mud Hen Water, Rising Stars alum Ed Kenney's acclaimed Honolulu restaurant.
There, he took on his first bartending job, dove into local sourcing, and refined his talents behind the stick. After a stint at a local karaoke bar, Arakawa became the opening bar manager of Avenue's Bar and Eatery.
In 2016, Arakawa was deployed to Afghanistan. When he returned to the States in 2017, he was eager to jump back into the bar scene, but took a job contracting for the Navy as a human intelligence officer and subject matter expert while working bar shifts in the evening. A year later, he transitioned out of government work entirely and joined the team at Pai Honolulu as bar manager, overseeing the cocktail and wine programs while working alongside Chef Kevin Lee. Arakawa then moved to Square Barrels, a craft beer and whiskey bar, to learn more about operations and management under Restaurateur Hideo Simon.
When the pandemic hit, Arakawa moved to Southern Arizona before eventually making his way to Las Vegas, Nevada. Soon after, he joined the team at Anima by EDO, working under the former beverage director, Bartender Chris Leavitt. When Leavitt left, Arakawa took over the program, becoming the corporate beverage director a year later. As the group expands, Arakawa is focused on training and educating his team while serving approachable, seasonal, and technique-driven cocktails. Outside of the restaurant, he is the president of the Las Vegas chapter of the The United States Bartenders' Guild and runs Spirit & Seoul, a Korean-inspired cocktail pop-up, with his business partner, Bartender Jennifer Yim.
