Thursday, February 28, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

Mark Sullivan knew from an early age that he wanted to be a chef when he grew up. As a seven-year-old, he asked his parents to turn the living room into a prix-fixe restaurant and install him as the chef. These days, he's behind the stoves at local landmark The Village Pub in Woodside, California, and in a nice example of symmetry, the place bills itself as the community's living room. Indeed, it's been hosting the neighborhood under one name or another for some 80 years.

Don't expect pub grub or local good-time boys swilling back a pint or two while playing a game of Beer Pong, however. Today, The Village Pub is the poshest pub around, with plush leather chairs, arty black-and-white photos, a mahogany bar, Lamborghinis in the parking lot, and contemporary Mediterranean-inflected food so good it earned the restaurant three and a half stars in the San Francisco Chronicle. As Chronicle critic Michael Bauer wrote, "Those who get to eat Sullivan's food regularly are privileged: he is producing some of the best food in the Bay Area. Few chefs have more talent-or restraint...Dish after dish proves Sullivan's mettle."

Sullivan first cooked in a professional kitchen as a 16-year-old. He continued to work in restaurants through high school, and while earning a philosophy degree from St. John's in Minnesota. At Sol y Luna in San Francisco, Sullivan rose up the line from prep cook to head line cook in eight short months. Then he took off for Europe-who can blame him?-where he polished his craft at restaurants in France and Spain. Back in San Francisco, Sullivan worked at Slow Club, then at 42 Degrees. Gourmet wrote a glowing review about the latter, and San Francisco Focus Magazine voted it Best Bay Area Mediterranean. He was working as chef de cuisine at PlumpJack Squaw Valley Inn in Lake Tahoe when The Village Pub made him an offer.

These days, Sullivan is dishing up "some of the best and classiest comfort food around," according to Mary Orlin on Palo Alto online. Think venison loin with veal marrow and morels; olive oil-poached wild salmon with chanterelles and sweet corn; and lamb chops with zucchini blossoms and tapenade. As Bauer concluded, "Great surroundings, terrific food, caring service. Is there a downside here? Frankly, I can't find one."