No actual tv dinners, but literal televisions and food for dinner.
We were on a little bit of an impromptu retro crawl. Starting with Mount Pleasant Provisions for lunch, we found ourselves at TV dinner for some coffee. Newer to the neighbourhood, they are a Cafe serving both hot and cold caffeinated beverages, along side grab and go, pastries like any other café.
However, what truly sets them apart is their in-Cafe marketplace of sorts. Across from the check-out counter is a series of refrigerated units housing local, premade, and frozen brands. So, despite the name, they don’t actually have have traditional TV dinners, but grab and go frozen food items that you can prepare at home and eat in front of the television, like the historic TV dinner.
Notable offerings include the popular Dicky Dumps: handmade dumplings. Hype, Chocolates’ limited edition, colourful ice cream sandwiches. Frozen Ramen, that you only need to thaw and bring to a boil. There was also smoked salmon and Cracked On food truck’s brand of thick, sliced, maple bacon.
There are also pantry staples like dry pasta and accompanying sauces, hot sauces, spreads, and condiments.
We ended up purchasing a bag of frozen seafood paella, having never seen anything like it in any frozen food section. We were also in the market for tortillas and salsa verde for a dinner project, so seeing them here, decided to pick up both. And noting that we seem to be in the market for tacos, the clerk behind the counter suggested a bottle of crispy jalapeño slices, so we decided to take his suggestion and purchase that as well. And we had no regrets.
We also grabbed a black coffee and an iced latte, as originally planned, and decided to take a quick sit at one of their narrow tables. Noticing that we would be staying a while we had two different staff members offered to keep our purchase within the refrigerator, but we declined seeing as that we didn’t plan on staying much longer.
In truth, we got caught up, watching one of their vintage televisions stacked on top of the others like a tower. The one that caught our attention looked like a psychedelic trip with suggestive cartoon monsters engaging in adult subject matter. I had to rip myself away being entranced by the ever-moving colours and shapes.
In short, this was a fun spot for some regular coffee and a nice way to explore some of Vancouver‘s local products. Tucked away on a quieter street, it may be hard to find, but is some thing that would catch your eye driving by. Worth a visit if you are in the neighbourhood.
TV Dinner Market & Café
1780 W 3rd Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 1K4
tvdinnershop.ca
