Our Birichino Malvasia, a beautifully floral but dry white wine, made the Chronicle’s top 100 wines of the year.

 Tonight, we have Fists of Flour Pizza in the house, back for an encore. James will have his mobile pizza oven fired up on the sidewalk outside, while we provide the drinks and shelter. Our regular menu will also be available.

  For those of you who follow the Wine Spectator, Seghesio Zinfandel, which we have in the bottle, was voted 12th best wine of the year, worldwide. We agree that it is pretty dang good, and does not suck at all with pork confit.

Yelp can be a really good thing. I used it to find places to eat when I moved to Oakland. Some of those places became my favorites, like El Taco Zamorano and Chai Thai. Although some restaurant people resent it, it can be a good tool. For example, if three yelps say the bread pudding is dry, you might want to check the bread pudding.

Every now and then, though, you get one that shows a disturbing level of unwarranted hostility( did you check out the link in the review I’m talking about?). Here are some clues that we are dealing with someone with pre-existing problems and not someone with genuine criticisms:

The imagined discrimination against the “non-hipster.” Does TA (our yelper) really imagine that we try to edit our customers by appearance? What constitutes a hipster, anyway? Certainly not our hostess, who does not list fashion among her passions. We don’t have a preferred demographic- its a place to eat, not a clothing line. Elderly people, kids, even the odd neck tattoo, all seem to feel pretty welcome here.

Point two: Why would you publicly post something threatening, profane, and insulting about any service employee? They are just implementing policies that are part of their jobs. The point of our seating policies are always to enable as many people to eat here as possible. Thats why we have a bar. Again, it seems clear that some pre-existing hostility was triggered.

TA finishes by claiming she “may even know the owners.” She doesn’t, and it wouldn’t make a difference. Our employees work very hard to satisfy a lot of people. That is expected of them every day. They are not expected to be targets for free floating rage. If you wish to advise your friends not to eat here, that is your right. In the meantime, TA, I request that you take down your abusive post, and please think a little harder before you single someone out for this type of attack. If you decide not to, that’s OK too. You are telling people more about yourself than about our restaurant.

Anyway, we at Chop Bar are generally supportive of financial justice, but not so interested in camping in front of City Hall. So seeing as our big bank has taken a huge bailout but still refuses to invest in our community, we’ve been looking for a way to use whatever power we have to support a more ethical financial system. That’s why we are moving our money to a community bank.

Torrey Pines is a San Diego based bank that has merged with local bank Alta Alliance. They have a good track record of lending to small businesses and non-profits, and also support local charities like Go Oakland Public Schools. They’re definitely not “Too big to fail.” We’re hoping that, because they are a relatively small bank, they will be more accountable to us, their other customers, and the community,

Here’s a link to a site that can suggest some good banks and credit unions near you:

http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/

If even, let’s say, 10% of small businesses moved to better banks, I think it might make a big difference. I can definitely guarantee that it feels awesome. Care to join us?