Frozen Dinner is Served

Scottsdale’s CANAL makes camp a main course

Comments (0) By Clay McNear Thursday, Jun 18 2009

Times certainly change. TV dinners might now be largely the domain of gap-toothed hillbillies living in trailers down by the river, but when they were introduced by C.A. Swanson & Sons back in 1953, they were Space Age all the way, mimicking the airline-food packaging of William L. Maxson’s ’40s-vintage Sky-Plates and Strato-Meals.

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And times have changed again. The sleek Scottsdale eatery named CANAL has wrested the TV dinner back from the hayseeds with its campy TV Dinner Tuesday concept. Each week, Executive Chef Justin Beckett offers "upscale" renderings of boob-tube goodies such as Grandma's meat loaf, beer-battered fish, and chicken pot pie, served in Swanson-style ceramic dishes while golden-age fare such as I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, and Ozzie and Harriet plays on the restaurant's 98-foot media wall.

Tue., June 23; Tue., June 30; Tue., July 7; Tue., July 14; Tue., July 21; Tue., July 28; Tue., Aug. 4; Tue., Aug. 11; Tue., Aug. 18; Tue., Aug. 25, 2009