Would You Like Fries With That Deposit?

Those looking for either a new place to bank, a new place to eat or both, will be pleased to hear that additional options are coming to Fitzgerald Drive in 2011.

While Pinole businesses have yet to become so newfangled as to allow for banking and dining at the same location, residents can experience something close enough, with a new diner and a new bank setting up shop in close proximity to one another.

In November, the owners of 10 Mel's Diner establishments around northern California entered into a leasing agreement to bring a Mel's Diner to Pinole. The new diner will inhabit the space at 1441 Fitzgerald Drive that was previously occupied by Krispy Kreme until it shut down in 2009.

It is among other restaurants scheduled to come to Pinole in 2011, with and slated to open in the first half of the new year in Old Town. Mel's Pinole location will employ up to 70 people will be open 24 hours a day, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The diner will open as early as April of 2011.

And for those looking for new banking options, Chase Bank will open a branch at 1541 Fitzgerald, just a short distance away from Mel's Diner. Chase Bank received approval from the city's planning commission in August to construct the new branch, which will replace the Long John Silver's that used to inhabit the site up until 2008.

Chase Bank will be demolishing the existing structure and constructing a new 3,843-sq. ft. building that is slated to be completed by the summer. The new Chase branch will join other Fitzgerald Drive banking centers such as and