Last week, the Valley coffee staple abruptly closed after its owner, Randall Denton, was sentenced to a year in prison for attempted sexual trafficking of a minor. Denton was arrested a year ago in a sting set up by Surprise police.
The news came as a shock to Xanadu’s staff, acting manager Wren Romero told Phoenix New Times. And while Xanadu is again selling lattes and cappuccinos, Romero said nobody is sure whether the shop will survive the crisis Denton’s crime has caused.
A joint statement from Xanadu and MFG Coffee, another downtown Phoenix coffee concept Denton also owned, was posted to social media on Sunday night.
“We love the community that exists here, & do not want to see it destroyed by the appalling, criminal & irredeemable actions of one man,” the post said.
Denton has operated Xanadu Coffee Co. since the late 2000s, roasting beans and supplying coffee to other local cafes. He opened the physical coffee shop in October 2020 with then-co-owner Jessica Bueno. Bueno hasn’t been affiliated with the business since 2022 and is not officially part of the transition team, Romero said. But she did speak to employees as a “friend of staff” after Denton’s arrest and bailed him out of jail. Bueno did not immediately respond to a request to comment.
Romero said the coffee shop is in the process of being sold and cutting ties with Denton, who she said deceived the staff about the circumstances of his arrest. Denton responded to an online sex ad for a purportedly 18-year-old woman but traveled to meet up with her anyway when she (actually an undercover cop) informed Denton she was only 14.
Romero, who was promoted from shift lead to manager Wednesday night following the news of Denton’s sentencing, said no employees knew the full extent of Denton’s arrest, which he never directly addressed with staff. A previous manager told Romero that Denton had been nabbed for solicitation, Romero said, which she called “bad but workable.” She said others were told he had been busted for driving while under the influence.
“We weren’t trying to cover up this crime or like enable it,” Romero said. “We were as horrified as anyone.”
Randall Denton was sentenced to a year in prison following his arrest for attempted sexual trafficking of a minor.
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Romero assumed that was the worst of it, and the real circumstances of his March 2024 arrest have left a particularly bitter taste in her mouth.
“Randy maintained that he had not known that it was a minor, and obviously they got his phone records and it’s like, ‘I’m 14, is that OK,’ (and he’s) like ‘Yup,’” Romero said before addressing Denton. “Like, fuck you.”
The staff’s reaction was “immediate despair and horror” when the truth came out Wednesday, Romero said. “Well fuck,” she recalled thinking, “we can’t keep working for Randy. We have to figure that out.”
She said four employees, including the manager at the time and the entire kitchen staff, quit over the news. Xanadu closed the next day as the remaining employees formed a crisis response team. On Thursday, employees met with Denton’s mother and adult daughter to demand that Denton transfer the businesses — including MFG Coffee on Seventh Avenue and the roastery that supplies beans to many shops around town — and the company’s machines away from him.
Romero said Denton seems to want to keep that part of the business and is “hoping to keep control of his roasting equipment.” From his personal email, Denton sent employees a “statement of accountability,” which New Times has obtained.
“I was under strict instructions by my lawyer to tell no one of the charges, and if someone found out I had been arrested, to only give the most general details only,” Denton wrote. “Nobody was covering for me.”
Denton added that he is “in talks” to sell the Xanadu shop, roastery and property and that he is “no longer on the payroll or drawing any money from any of the businesses.” He wrote he would defer profits to the employees and the transition team until the company is sold.
“I am deeply sorry for the hurt my actions have caused,” he wrote. “There is no excuse for my actions.”
Employees are seeking new ownership to purchase Xanadu and change the name of the shop. Xanadu was employee-owned at one point, but Romero said employees no longer own any stock, which Denton bought back over the years. She said there are “multiple interested buyers,” and MFG Coffee is “definitely being sold… like, that’s happening as soon as possible.”
Xanadu Coffee Co. is both a coffee shop and a wholesale roaster. Now, the two concepts may separate.
Xanadu Coffee Roasters
As of right now, Romero said, nobody wants to take on Xanadu who can afford to. If new ownership doesn’t materialize in the next two weeks, Romero said “it’s pretty likely” that Xanadu will have to shut its doors. Xanadu employees decided to reopen on Monday to ensure that the shop’s half-dozen employees didn’t suddenly find themselves unemployed.
“It’s pretty much day-to-day,” Romero said. “We’re, frankly, not a profitable business. We’re mostly interested in trying to make revenue so that we could pay payroll for our staff.”
If the money to pay for payroll and supplies runs out before Xanadu finds new ownership, the shop will likely close. Since the news of Denton’s sentencing, there has been a “sharp drop in business,” Romero said, so any money being made right now is going toward payroll, maintaining the shop and supporting the transition to new ownership.
The coffee-roasting wholesale portion of the business, which Denton has operated much longer than the coffee shop, is not reopening for now. Most of Xanadu’s clients who buy beans for their own shops have chosen to go with other roasters. That includes the new iterations of Xanadu and MFG Coffee, which are in the process of finding new bean suppliers.
“At least during this transitionary period, we are not operating the roastery while we try to determine whether or not Randy wants to retain ownership of the roastery or of the roasting equipment,” Romero said. “Roasting business is going to be paused for a fair length of time, if not canceled entirely.”
