How We Got Our Start

We have extensive food service experience in cleveland, Canton and Akron, OH

Welcome to the electrifying universe of Nightlife Mobile Bartending – where we don’t just serve drinks, we create a BARTENDING AND FOOD EXTRAVAGANZA that turns your private events into legendary celebrations. We are a professional mobile bartending service as well as a small fine dining dinner venue. Throughout my 58 years in the food and beverage industry, being “one of a kind” was always more important than being “one of many!” I’m John Shaheen, the maestro who put this vision together. I have decades of experience and live in Canton, Ohio. I started working for my dad’s restaurant and bar at age 13 as a janitor, riding my bike to work for 50 cents per hour! This was the start of a journey that led me to become a restaurant owner and Fine Dining Chef at Rumours in Canton Ohio.

I’ve done every aspect of the Food & Beverage industry including floor plans, design, coordinating events and restaurant consulting. For three years, I owned and instructed at two state-certified bartending schools, one in Canton and one in Youngstown. I trained over 500 students and later published a book and video on bartending. In 2018, I decided to semi-retire and shift gears.

I engineered, built and designed a unique food trailer called Char-Bar Dining Car. Every year got busier than the year before and it became more work than I cared to do at 68 years of age. Now, the only cooking I do is limited. I only hire professional bartenders who wear uniforms. After three food trailer seasons and working 80+ hours a week, my plan was to sell my food trailer and fully retire in September of 2021. But I changed my mind – and since the food trailer resembled a bar, why not make it into one unlike any other?

Right before the holidays, I completed the three-month transition, including a name change, retro-wrapping three sides and painting a mural on the fourth side of the cabin’s exterior. Two sides feature a moon and stars and the fourth side (the bar side) has a tropical theme, painted by a local artist. It turned out amazing and very eye-catching. 

When I originally designed the trailer for food, I made the side service window the same height as a fast food drive-up window. This worked out well for serving food during Covid. You don’t see many food trailers with drive-up window service. Through the help of two service tents and the trailer, we are equipped to handle groups up to 500 guests for beverages and can cook for groups from 6-200