Tucked within a residential home, Surfside Liquors at 950 Innes Ave. is easy to miss. Yet Hunters Point residents are proud of the only grocery store in the area. Robert “Bob” Pinkard’s regulars generally hang next to the barbecue smoker nearby, but out of respect for the owner, no one loiters in front of his store.
Surfside has been there since 1974 and in 2006 the Chrissy Field Center named Pinkard a community hero for selling fresh produce in an area labeled a food desert. “The next closest store is two miles away,” said Pinkard with a deep southern twang. That’s still the case, but Surfside no longer sells fresh produce. Pinkard would if he could — but he’s caught in a Catch-22.
For years, customers bought his fresh produce and ingredients with food stamps. Therein lies Pinkard’s problem: The shelves, once stocked with flour, sugar and canned goods, are now stocked with a random assortment of water, room-temperature beer and cleaning supplies. The refrigerators that kept the ice cream cold now store alcohol…