Maynard James Keenan, best known as the voice behind Tool and A Perfect Circle, has spent the last 20 years turning the Verde Valley into an unexpected hub for wine and culture. In 2024, he and his wife, Jennifer Keenan, grew Queen B Vinyl Café into a full café and coffee roastery, and the spot has since become Northern Arizona’s only official Record Store Day location, hosting acts like Khemmis and Author & Punisher along the way.
On September 4, Maynard Keenan is opening Queen B Sushi at 816 N. Main St. in Old Town Cottonwood, with reservations available online.
“Although I’ve been enjoying sushi since my days in Boston, circa 1987, my first Japanese tour wasn’t until 2000 with A Perfect Circle,” Maynard Keenan says. “It was an eye-opening and mind-blowing experience. While there, I picked up these amazing titanium and hard wood travel chopsticks from Snow Peak. And I’ve carried them with me ever since. Last year I ran into Janeane Garofalo at the Chelsea in NYC. She was saying to David Cross and Dave Hill, ‘I haven’t seen Maynard in several years but one thing I remember is that he used to carry chopsticks in his pocket.’ At which point I reached into my pocket and pulled them out. Twenty-five years I’ve been carrying these chopsticks. That’s how much I love sushi.”
Culinary director chef Brett Vibber is heading up the kitchen, bringing experience from Roka Akor’s London, Hong Kong and U.S. locations to the project. Vibber built out the Queen B Sushi team with two key hires: chef Chuhiro “Thomas” Kato, who trained under Nobu Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills and Masaharu Morimoto in New York City, and chef Sheridan “Sher” Chase, an Arizona native who cut his teeth in kitchens from California to Texas before coming home.
The sushi restaurant almost didn’t happen. While putting together the menu for Queen B Vinyl Café, Maynard Keenan and Jennifer Keenan initially scrapped plans for a full sushi program, figuring a town of 12,000 wouldn’t have the right chef for the job. It turned out Vibber had been on staff the whole time.
Queen B Sushi will rotate through a wine list built from Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards selections.
Maynard Keenan‘s wine résumé in the region runs deep. He spent more than two decades building up Northern Arizona’s wine industry, including leading the push that earned the Verde Valley its AVA (American Viticultural Area) certification in 2021. His footprint started with the Caduceus Cellars Tasting Room in Jerome and has grown to include the Merkin Vineyards Hilltop Winery & Trattoria and the Caduceus Cellars Hilltop Facility, a seven-acre complex built on the site of Cottonwood’s former Masonic Lodge.

The post TOOL’s MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN Expands Arizona Wine-And-Food Empire With The Opening Of “Queen B Sushi” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

