Queen Bee’s

I have been frequenting Queen Bee every Sunday for the passed 6 months.
The instructors they have here are fun and good quality.
If you are beginning out in the salsa community or partner dancing in general this is the studio to go to! I highly recommend Sundays salsa and bachata. No partner needed.
I also recommend getting a ten stamp class card. It’s worth it.
They are also adding a third room. Very exciting for them.

This is a review of Rosie’s Zumba classes at Queen Bee’s. I would give Rosie 10 stars if I could!
She is by far one of the best dance teachers I’ve ever encountered. This woman is a tiny ball of spitfire energy. Her classes are SO much fun. You will laugh, you will sweat, you will think your feet can’t move any faster but you won’t want to stop.
Rosie puts on the music and doesn’t stop moving for an hour — no interruptions, no explaining moves. But all levels will feel welcome. There is no judging here. She mixes traditional Latin Zumba music with hip hop and oldies.
No mirror — LOVE.
Dark with club lights — so you literally feel like you are just dancing at a club in the middle of a Saturday.
Bonus — her classes are $ 7 with a 10 pass class! Get out of here with those prices!

A beautiful venue that offers a space for many important, inspiring, and fun community events to take place. Definitely check out their spoken word and open mic nights :). Great place to engage with the community and support the arts.

Went for Sunday salsa and bachata class. Michael is a great instructor, easy to follow. A great place to get your dance on (which I recommend) after the 2-​hr lessons. I felt like everyone was there to dance. I was asked to dance and felt less INTIMIDATED asking someone else to dance.

I absolutely love dancing salsa here. I started about 7 months ago and I have become familiar with some of the people. People are super friendly and nice. Doesn’t matter if you’re new or advanced. Everybody just wants to dance :)

LOVE for salsa, this is a great place to dance salsa and you feel like everyone there is dancing and JUST there to dance.

I’ve absolutely loved all the shows, art events, and dance parties I’ve attended here (and that’s 100s, at this point!). Although I have great memories at QB’s, unfortunately I can’t say I’m too sold on the venue…
Queen Bee’s is actually pretty dark and a bit run down, when you think about it– low ceilings, a low stage, a strange lay-​out, and abysmal A/​C (just try salsa dancing here on a Sunday night– if you’re not a puddle by the end of it then you must be in a different venue!). And I know that they rent out the venue for weddings and other events, but it’s hard to believe that you could lighten the place up enough for one of those– make sure to use a lot of white linens and extra lighting! Also, if you attend anything focusing on the stage, you should make sure to grab a seat up front– with the low stage and large chairs up front, visibility is pretty bad…
Don’t even get me started on the parking… North Park will never win any awards in that category, and the streets surrounding Ohio are no exception.
I’m glad the venue exists, for everything it hosts (saving my rating, here) — but it is desperately in need of some updates. Maybe, with what they charge for events, those renovations will come sooner rather than later, but until then I won’t hold my breath.

Fun place to dance, it’s hot so bring a towel :)
The do a free class on Sunday 8:30 pm Ana they party goes on until 1:30 ish
Great music and there really good dancers (for the most part).

This is a sweet spot. Get it? Honey is sweet and bees make it. Corny joke I know.
I came here for the Cosplay Circus, it wasn’t that big of an event. It’s really cool that this place is bigger than it looks. The sound system is pretty good.
At the Coldplay Circus which was also a concert, Velveteen Band (Which the singer is a puppet, also known as a ventriloquist) and Lolita Dark played (which is a Jpop band, maybe closer to a Jrock band). The coolest costume was the chewbacca costume (That one wasn’t in the contest, because the owner wore it). The DJ was cool, they played some video game techno music.

One of my close friends and I experienced our first session of Lyrical Exchange last night. We showed up right at 8:00 however they were still setting up and didn’t get started until 8:30…I would suggest showing up anytime between 8 – 8:30 to get a comfortable seat, the entire show lasts about 3 hours. Every Tuesday they offer the opportunity for anyone to showcase their talents ranging from spoken word-​Poetry (my fav.) singing, comedy, or any other type of talent you posses. You can buy water or soda, however there is no alcohol or food served. You also need to come prepared to participate with a very vocal (Exchange) after the Emcee randomly yells out (Lyrical). At the beginning of the night they pass around a notebook for everyone to contribute to a line of anything that you want to write down weather it’s a poetry line or anything that you randomly want to say that comes to mind… at the end of the night the Emcee reads it out loud. This particular night everyone was in sync with what the last person wrote because it seemed flow.
I’m a big fan… a must try at least once… I’m still mesmerized by the spoken word that night, I very much feel inspired to start writing poetry again!
**Street parking or $ 5 parking at the Mexican restaurant next door.

This review is strictly for the bachata room on Sunday nights. Otherwise everything else is great, location, staff, parking, entry price, etc etc.
The Bachata Djs here are only good at emptying a dance floor. They are fixated on playing only dominican songs and Aventura style music, very stale and outdated. Songs are not mixed, its more like you’re listening to pandora. Dancing here is like dancing in a 2013 time bubble and its the same playlist every week.
Have you been to a bachata festival or salsa congress? Or even LA? Night and day DJs, enough said.

Came for open mic night
Nice venue. Lots of talent. Only $ 5 cover –good price, real value. Feels like a very creative space. Clean. Nice chairs. The performers, DJ, and emcee were all wonderful. Would be better with a snack/​drink bar but I hear that’s in the works ;) love the positive energy and give back to the community by selling honey and merchandise. Will def be back:)

I cannot say enough good things about Alma, Jeff, and the whole staff over at Queen Bee’s Art and Cultural Center. We were pretty overwhelmed trying to plan a wedding for 200 guests on a budget of $ 10k for everything. By choosing Queen Bee for our reception venue, we saved a ton of money, our guests had a wonderful time, we were able to relax on our important day, and in short everyone was happy. All in all, she was honest and upfront to deal with, she was professional and made accommodations for us. Her crew worked hard, but delivered what we wanted 97.9% of the time. What little details escaped us, turned out not to matter anyway; there were no unfortunate surprises. Here is a list of the specific things that went right:
* The location in the heart of North Park was easy to get to for our many out of town guests, close to the Lafayette Hotel where we had a block of rooms. And it was a short drive to the ceremony site at Harbor Island Park.
* Queen Bee arranged to help us rent a lot across the street for parking for our guests. For the late-​comers (including the grooms!), there was cheap garage parking just a couple blocks away.
* Alma recommended us to a great bakery that gave us the cake we wanted for a very reasonable price that included delivery.
* One of the best things about Queen Bee is the arrangement of the space. We had a DJ up on the stage, along with the wedding party table, buffet and bar was in the middle room, we had 18 round tables and chairs in the main ballroom, we set up an X-​Box lounge in the middle room, along with the pool table. We had a fabulous drag entertainer with her own dressing room in one corner, and a sound engineer and follow spot operator at the back of the main hall, the bathrooms were clean and spacious, plus the staging area and outdoor smoking patio in back. So there was a lot going on, but it never felt crowded.
* The décor was simple and elegant; we chose to have local artist’s work on the hallways in the back.
* Alma’s daughter catered the hors-d’oeuvres and the other food came from El Comal. Alma took care of all of it. No one went hungry or ever had cold food.
* Alma hired bartending students for the bar who worked for straight hourly pay plus tips. We supplied the alcohol. Again, no one went thirsty, and no one got (too) wasted.
* DJ Cassanouva (sp?) kept the pace moving all night; he was another one of Alma’s recommendations.
In summary, I can truly tell you that I recommend Alma and Queen Bee’s for their thoroughness, professionalism, price, location, and community connections. She worked hard for us, and we couldn’t be happier with the result.

My wife and I held our wedding reception at Queen Bee’s in April 2014. A bit of an unusual choice, but we are young adults on a budget and more interested in fun and good company than fancy.
We were looking for a venue which, ahem:
–would allow us to purchase and bring in our own alcohol. We knew we needed a decent amount of social lubricant, and did not want to pay the ridiculous prices that so many wedding venues get away with charging.
–would allow us to have a photobooth (my demand).
–might have a space where we could have a fire pit for s’mores (my wife’s dream)
–would let us bring in our own desserts since we wanted both tiny cheesecake bites (my favorite) and ice cream cake (wife’s favorite)
These were the criteria, and Queen Bee’s fit the bill.
Pros:
–QB’s met all of our aforementioned criteria. We had the option to use their services or bring in our own vendors. They required that we provide our own alcohol, which was great!
–They were flexible with the space and let us show our personality in our decisions in how the space was used. It’s a unique and fun space and we tried to capitalize on that: we took pictures in front of the mural, in front of their painted walls, and across the street with the crazy cat mural. We had the front great room with tables and a dance floor, the middle, mirrored room with a photo booth and bar, and we used the back patio for s’mores and cigars.
–I was excited to support a local business that seemed to have a positive reputation in the community.
–They are certainly more affordable than most other venues. Hotels are nuts. Our initial quote was around $ 5500, but since we didn’t use their photographer, florist, or baker, I think we got out for less.
–Jeff was a super hard worker, and he did all he could to help us achieve our visions for the space. Thanks, Jeff!
Cons:
–There was a last minute reschedule for our food tasting, in spite of the fact that I had been trying to confirm it for a couple of days. Turns out Alma was sick, which is understandable, but shouldn’t someone else be checking voicemail and email in that instance?
–Overall, their communication was hit and miss. In the few weeks leading up to the wedding, when stress was at its pinnacle, we did not receive timely responses to our calls or emails. It felt like we had to hound them to get a response.
–The food was just ok. The mushrooms that were great at the tasting were cold during the reception. On the flip side, our sirloin steak at the tasting was awful, so we upgraded to the filet mignon. We weren’t able to do a taste test, but knew it had to be better than the fatty piece of gristle we had tried. The filets turned out quite well. They gave it a good try, but if I had to do it over, I would have had someone else cater it or brought in a food truck instead.
–We had arranged to leave the remainder of our ice cream cake in their freezer overnight and pick it up the next day. It was our main dessert– the pretty one that was displayed — and we wanted to save a portion of it for our anniversary. Plus, there was a decent amount that remained and I will not let ice cream cake go to waste! Anywho, in the shuffle at the end of the night, the freezer it was stored in was moved and left unplugged. You can imagine what we picked up the next day. Ice cream puddle cake. We got an apology, but does that really cut it?
–Bartenders were an included service, but they were novices at best. To be fair, we were forewarned that they were not professionals. We gave them a recipe to follow, but upon tasting my first mule of the night, I knew something was wrong. Turns out they had removed the flow restrictor from the bitters and were free pouring them into cocktails. They also added bitters to my sister’s Jack and Coke? Strange stuff. We gave them feedback, and they were gracious and adjusted well. My recommendation: If you are serving beer and wine, feel free to use their staff. If you have an event with mildly complicated cocktails, bring in a trained bartender.
For the record, we did not have our ceremony here, just the reception.
Since I added a few pictures that include other vendors works:
photographer: Imagery with Impact/​Leylla
dj: Hiba Heabnasty Qadri
succulents (florist): Tend Living/​Britton
ice cream cake: Maggie’s Cake Shop
cheesecake bites: The Incredible Cheesecake Company
hair: Jenna Lee
photobooth: Pixster Photo Booths
Overall, it’s probably best I waited to write the review since immediately after I would have given them three stars. Looking back, it was a unique wedding spot with only a few snags in the road. Since they’re not primarily a wedding venue, it makes sense that it wasn’t flawless. We had fun, our guests had fun, and we didn’t spend $ 20k to do it. Good enough for me.

Went to see a concert there. Hard to see if you are not in the first few rows or the last row (which is raised seating). The bouncer at the door was rude. No outside drinks or food, not even water which they should have mentioned on their website. The sound quality was good. Liked the intimate setting, had a coffee house feel.

Great place to dance up a storm, the dance floors are nice and roomy ,
Lots of good dancers and over all good time to start the new week.

Queen Bee is such a versatile venue. I have attended several dancing classes there plus special performance events, including free hair styling! Last Friday night I went to attend the Bits and Pieces show, the benefit children with disabilities. I don’t think of any other venue when you can have reunited many of the best graffiti artists of San Diego under the same roof! Very original concept of painting in canvases the full paint, and then selling those canvases in units, so each person will get a piece of the ‘wall’. The vibe you get is alternative, artistic and creative. Snobs don’t have a place at vibrant Queen Bee. Difficult to park as is many centric places of North Park.

This was a really awesome place to plan a private party! I planned a Speakeasy Surprise birthday party for my super husband Steve T. I rented the back room which comes with a large outdoor patio area. It was reasonably priced and easy to decorate, as the back entrance allows you to unload your car right there. The back room looks really beautiful and has a huge mural of New York! When we decked it out, it looked simply amazing! My favorite things about Queen Bee’s are the super friendly staff and the laissez-​faire attitude… not anal at all and let you throw your party the way you want it. A couple of the guys were there during the day and helped us out with the unloading and decorations, despite the fact that was not part of their job.
The reasons I leave my review at four stars is because I had booked the room four months in advance and some of the details that I had discussed with the director were forgotten or seemed to change over time, and depending who I spoke to… but everything worked out in the end. Also, there is no kitchen, so it is important to do either very simple food, or have the caterers do everything (I chose the latter).
Prior to my private party, I had been to Queen Bee’s for an amazing Unilocal Elite party, a comedy open mic night, and a Mental Health Week event… all of which were great!

Came here Sunday night for a fun night of salsa dancing! There is a $ 10 cover with a $ 2 discount for students so remember to bring your student ID. The bachata lesson starts promptly at 7:30 followed by a salsa lesson at 8:30. Michael is a very engaging and fun instructor. Although as a beginner, I had a hard time following the more advanced moves he was showing us. It was a blast nonetheless.
The crowd is awesome. Except for one creepy older male who literally grabbed my wrist asking for dance (I almost punched him in the face as a natural reflex to being grabbed so hard, glad I didn’t) everyone was fun to dance with.
I love that they have a separate room for those who want to slow things down a bit and get sexy doing bachata. There was no AC yesterday but they had plenty of fans going. I believe they mentioned they were hoping to get the AC issue worked out.
Bottled water costs $ 2. I would definitely come back. In case you didn’t know, the Marriott in La Jolla offers a Salsa night with a lesson for FREE on Wednesdays. Catch you on the dance floor!

One of my friends had an extra ticket to a show at Queen Bees for last night. There’s a patio outside for smokers which was good, because I couldn’t stand the concert or the crowd, so I ended spending most of the time outside.
There’s no ventilation system, and it’s sorely needed. When I see a concert, I prefer to sit down, not stand in a hot crowded stuffy room of sweaty, smelly people smoking marijuana.
I would return to Queen Bees if I had a reason to, but not for a concert. The parking sucks, and it’s $ 5.00 to park in the lot on the next block.