Maynard James Keenan has spent years turning Northern Arizona into a destination for wine, food, music and culture, and now sushi is joining the mix. The Tool and A Perfect Circle frontman will open Queen B Sushi on September 4 at 816 N. Main St. in Old Town Cottonwood, expanding a local footprint that already includes wineries, tasting rooms and Queen B Vinyl Cafe.
The idea has roots going back decades. Keenan says he has loved sushi since his Boston days in the late 1980s, but a 2000 Japanese tour with A Perfect Circle deepened that connection considerably.
That trip also gave him one of his longest-running personal accessories. Keenan picked up titanium and hardwood travel chopsticks from Snow Peak and says he has carried them ever since, even producing them from his pocket during a recent conversation with Janeane Garofalo, David Cross and Dave Hill in New York.
Queen B Sushi is being led by Culinary Director Brett Vibber, whose résumé includes work with Roka Akor in London, Hong Kong and the United States. Vibber has assembled a team that includes Chef Chuhiro “Thomas” Kato and Arizona native Chef Sheridan “Sher” Chase.
Kato brings some particularly notable experience to Cottonwood. He trained under Nobu Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills and Masaharu Morimoto in New York, connecting the new restaurant to 2 of the best-known names in contemporary Japanese cuisine.
The concept wasn’t originally guaranteed to happen. When Keenan and his wife, Jennifer, were developing Queen B Vinyl Cafe, they considered adding a full sushi program but assumed it would be difficult to find the right chef in a town of roughly 12,000 people.
Vibber was already there.
That discovery helped turn what had been a shelved idea into a standalone restaurant. Queen B Sushi will also pour a rotating selection of wines from Keenan’s Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards, bringing another part of his Arizona operation directly into the dining experience.
The opening follows years of investment in the Verde Valley. Keenan helped campaign for the region’s American Viticultural Area designation, which was approved in 2021, and his local businesses now include the Caduceus Cellars Tasting Room in Jerome, Merkin Vineyards Hilltop Winery & Trattoria and the Caduceus Cellars Hilltop Facility.
Queen B Vinyl Cafe has also developed into more than a record shop. Expanded in 2024 to include a cafe and coffee roaster, it now serves as Northern Arizona’s exclusive Record Store Day location and has hosted artists including Khemmis and Author & Punisher.
That mix of music, hospitality and local agriculture has become central to Keenan’s work outside the stage. Queen B Sushi adds another piece to that world, this time drawing directly from a food culture he has been carrying around with him, quite literally, for nearly 4 decades.
Queen B Sushi opens September 4 in Old Town Cottonwood, Arizona.
AloJapan.com