From Hokkaido to Healdsburg: SingleThread's Usu-Zan experience is a culinary trip to Japan
By
Apr 05, 2021
The return of International travel finally feels on the horizon and Healdsburg's SingleThread restaurant is offering a taste of what's to come via a heavenly, four-hour journey to the shores of a Japanese island.
The three-Michelin-starred restaurant has partnered with San Francisco designer Ken Fulk for a special dining experience called Usu-Zan: A Homage to Wintertime in Hokkaido. While the original launch was paused during the last shutdown at the end of 2020, it's back and extended through May 31st.
Usu-Zan is the name of a small, active volcano in a remote village where SingleThread proprietors Kyle and Katina Connaughton lived while in Hokkaido. The Usu-Zan experience in Healdsburg takes place inside a massive tent adjacent to the restaurant, but you don't feel like you're in a tent at all once inside (and I've dined in a lot of tents in the past year). Instead, it feels like you're in a Japanese forest. Surrounded by greenery, the tent was filled with soft and neutral-toned traditional furnishings, like wooden screens that separate the space into small rooms and Japanese lanterns.