Restaurateur behind Michelin stars has his eye set on Boise’s North End. You ready, Idaho?
If you’ve ever thought that Boise has a shortage of high-end sushi restaurants, you might not have to wait much longer.
Influential San Francisco restaurateur Kash Feng, whose restaurants have earned Michelin stars, is jumping into Boise’s food scene with his business partner, Boise-based commercial real estate developer Jon Bergschneider.
They propose to open a restaurant, Raibu Sushi, at 808 W. Fort St., the former site of Bistro d’Helene, which closed in late 2024 after its owner came under fire for not paying employees at Apericena, its sister restaurant in Hyde Park.
The sushi shop would sit on the south side of the parking lot adjoining the Boise Co-Op and next to Pho Real, across from St. Joseph’s Catholic School.
Feng, the CEO of San Francisco’s Omakase Restaurant Group, and Bergschneider are working through the city’s permit process and hope to open the restaurant in late June or early July.
“We were able to find a great spot, we love the Hyde Park area, we love the community there,” Bergschneider said by phone. “To be able to be a part of that community is super exciting.”
They’re still working out details, including a full menu and the number of seats, but they’ve got a vision for the roughly 2,000-square-foot space. Bergschneider said the dining area makes up about 60% of the area and that the small space would contribute to an intimate, upper-scale offering with a traditional sushi bar and table service.
“It’s not a large space,” Bergschneider said. “We’d rather be more acutely focused on not only the menu, but the experience.”
“Sushi,” he said, “is an experience. It isn’t just food.”
Raibu Sushi, he said, would be a new thing for the North End, which has little in the way of Japanese offerings. Along with sushi, Feng said, they plan to serve steaks and cooked seafood grilled over an open fire on a binchotan grill, a type of Japanese charcoal grill.
The menu, Feng said, is being developed by one of his chefs at San Francisco’s Niku Steakhouse, which won and has maintained a Michelin star since 2021.
“This is going to be pretty new in terms of aggregation of the various facets of the offering,” Bergschneider said. “It’s really going to be done in a pretty unique new way.”
Oh, and if you’re a little squeamish about eating sushi in the middle of Southwest Idaho — hundreds of miles from the ocean — Feng and Bergschneider said not to worry.
“When you look at some of the best sushi restaurants in the world, you’ll find them in Chicago or Las Vegas or Denver,” Bergschneider said. “There’s a long history of being able to execute on a food program when you’re not right on the coast.”
According to Feng, most of the sushi in Japan is cured, steamed and aged, which helps preserve sushi long after it has left the sea.
They’re also working with a seafood distributor from California and an exclusive sake distributor.
What the duo really want to do, Feng said, is make people say: “Wow, this is what I can get in Japan.”
‘A long time coming’ for Boise sushi
Feng, who was born and raised in Xi’an, China, before moving to San Francisco at 18, has been making sushi for over 20 years. He started as a dishwasher once he arrived in the United States, then worked his way up the restaurant business — eventually opening sushi restaurant Omakase and then Niku Steakhouse.
According to Feng, Omakase was one of the first Michelin-starred sushi restaurants in San Francisco and was the first or second restaurant with only sushi bar seating. Omakase is a Japanese term meaning chef’s choice, or letting the chef decide what to serve the eater.
Feng is also behind the California fast-casual Dumpling Time dim sum chain, The Third Floor restaurant in San Francisco’s The Jay Hotel, Okane, Prelude and several other sushi restaurants in San Francisco.
The duo have long been friends and business partners, planning to start a sushi restaurant together in San Francisco 20 years ago. But it never quite worked out.
Bergschneider moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Boise about three years ago and “immediately fell in love” with the area, he said. He brought Feng to town about nine months ago to show him around, and Feng had a similar reaction.
“It’s just so beautiful,” Feng said. “I love the city and the surrounding area.”
“More than anything else, (Feng) and I are excited to be a part of the local business community,” Bergschneider said
This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story spelled the name of the restaurant incorrectly. It’s Raibu Sushi.
