FlagLIVE! December 18, 2025
Written by Gail G. Collins
Current food industry aims are centered on sustainability—maintaining an ecological balance. This core principle fills the larder at Queen B Vinyl Café. Its diverse interests involve an immersive, niche record shop, barbershop, restaurant and roastery. The mingled spaces beg one to wander from one teasing thing to another.
The color scheme is a showstopper to start. Bright orange and blue exudes a happy energy and eccentricity. Customers of all ages and backgrounds flick through records while an historic hearse parked in front wears the bumper sticker, “Honk if you love vinyl.”
The indie record shop curates select latest releases from across genres, while boasting exclusive, limited and rare releases from the owner, Maynard Keenan’s bands. It’s also a proud outpost for Record Store Day.
A wine bar serves selections from Caduceus Cellars and Merkin Vineyards, part of family operations only a stone’s throw away, where Hilltop Trattoria and a gelateria are built into a ridge accessible by tram.
The traditional barbershop with two chairs often has a tattoo artist as well as a hair colorist on deck. There is also an in-house custom seamstress for tailoring needs that has blossomed into an informal sewing club. More, the café invites all to grab a bite and hang around.
Plenty of parking, seating and varied curiosities create an appealing venue.
“We wanted to bring a little culture to Old Town Cottonwood,” said co-owner Jan Keenan, an eclectic force herself. Besides administration duties, she curates branded items for the shop and record selection with an executive board position on the nonprofit Women in Vinyl, explores and books bands for events, brainstorms activities, and for fun, races crap cars in an annual rally and practices falconry.
Read more: Queen B Vinyl Café blends music, meals and makers into one vibrant hubFor Keenen, sustainability is the plan. Both eateries are supplied via four acres of cultivated land with stone fruit trees, chickens, ducks and quail, plus three greenhouses growing lettuces, bok choy, tomatoes and more rotationally. The menu descends from all that can be produced and is supplemented from local purveyors, according to award-winning chef Brett Vibber.
“We are hyper-focused on what’s growing at the farm, like seasonal fruit. It’s food the way nature intended, not a manipulated climate,” Vibber explained. “Good food is good medicine—it’s most beneficial for the body because it is local.”
Menu faves include the Judas Burger, which begs to betray your waistline with a 6-ounce smash-style Terra Farms Wagyu beef patty, pickles, sharp cheddar and Queen B sauce with onion jam on a brioche bun, served with fries or a green salad. The local beef is crossbred for high fat content and flavor. God’s Favorite, an all-beef Fripper dog, is dressed with pickled pico de gallo and garden chili aioli and a side of salad. Quiches, whether it is the Cain veggie with seasonal goods or the Abel meat with spicy turkey sausage and veg, the crust is a family recipe. Among three ramen bowls, the tonkotsu contains traditional pork broth, pork belly chashu, local mushrooms, bok choy, bamboo shoots, spring onion and a soft egg. Many dishes abound with farm-raised eggs.
Brunch Beat Sundays liven it up with a DJ to bring both sides of the shop together.
Queen B Vinyl Café evolved from a record shop that came home to the family’s Verde Valley vineyards after 16 years in Jerome.
Keenan emphasized the roastery. “Coffee is a natural transition from wine in its flavors and notes.”
Manager Christopher Grgurich explained, “The basic concept is a micro roastery, solely for shop use.” Globally-sourced beans are espresso-focused, New Wave, light roast single origin and European style. The beans are roasted on a Loring S7 Nighthawk. “It sounds like a fighter jet—the Ferrari of roasters,” he said grinning. Popular drinks include espressos, cappuccinos, Americanos, lattes, specialty seasonal offerings as well as teas.
A devoted wife and mom, Keenan said of the myriad opportunities at Queen B, “It’s important with my daughter near her teens to have a place to be with things going on.”
There are things going on, like listening parties for new music coming out. Every Friday and Saturday, the shop hosts free movies. A design and print studio allows anyone to create original art with a DTG printer.
To celebrate their first anniversary in October, Queen B Vinyl Café held poetry nights, bands of all kinds, puppets and more.
“It’s a neighborhood vibe, community café. It’s safe, all are welcome whether you’re a local or a traveler passing through,” Keenan said. It’s definitely the Queen B. FLGLive!