There are restaurants, there are clubs, there are bars with food, and then there are concept restaurants. There are not many of these around now, such as movie or dinner theater restaurants or laundromat restaurants, and hardly any of what used to be common in the South Bay in the 1980s: Thai restaurant-bowling alley combinations. So when something new comes along, people notice (or at least I do).

What’s new is the 3rd Door (actually spelled with only one “d”), a combination fitness center, restaurant, and wine bar, not to mention community center. You will find it next to Darbar on the corner of Lytton and High, in a space that various startups have started and died in. They have both the sidewalk-frontage building and the building at the rear of the parking lot, which is where the restaurant is. They serve breakfast, lunch, and small stuff. They have eight sandwiches (two vegetarian), which is the most substantive food they offer. For some reason they have a full liquor license and some specialty cocktails as well as wine. The wine list is cute, with interesting choices like a grenache from Sardinia. There are eleven wines by the glass ($8.50-12.00) and 28 by the bottle ($35-100). (Oh, and they also sell fitness clothes, and have not only personal and small-group fitness sessions but also knitting, bridge, and poker groups. All profits go to WANDA, the organization supporting single women.) I’ve put it on the Restaurants page of this site under California because I don’t have a section for Fitness restaurants yet.

Opening party is tonight, from 6:00-11:00. See ya there.