Yesterday, a beautiful and wonderful thing happened! October 5th, 2016 marks the official sweet sixteenth birthday of the TV show, Gilmore Girls! With a new revival season coming November 25th, Netflix decided they needed to do something to celebrate. So they created “Luke’s Diner” for the public – in 200 local coffee shops around the United States! You could visit this coffee shop and find Luke’s famous diner cup sign, see employees wearing flannel in their blue apron’s and backwards baseball caps, and you could order coffee (and if you were among the first 100 people, you got your coffee free because let’s face it, Lorelai and Rory rarely paid for their coffee) and your cup would come with it’s own Luke’s diner logo with a special and unique coffee-related Gilmore Girl quote hidden inside.
If you didn’t get the chance to walk through and experience the magic of this day, then that’s what this blog post is for! To help you visually experience with some of the photos I captured yesterday during the fabulous Luke’s Diner and Gilmore Girl’s coffee day!
I can’t speak for other locations, but at our location we had to wait about 2.5 hours to get inside and get our coffee. Even though the line was long, we were able to chat with other ladies in line about Gilmore Girls, the revival, and even made a few new friends!
When we got close enough to see and photograph the sign, I started to freak out! I mean, I love Gilmore Girls – it’s definitely one of my all-time favorite shows, but even I surprised myself with how much I was fangirling in this moment over a cardboard cutout. So the anticipation grew as we continued to wait and get closer and closer to the door!
We had a “Luke” (not pictured) hang outside, flannel and backwards baseball cap and all! He was taking pictures of and with fans (some of the photos are pictured on Instagram – @lothatlstation) and he even answered the phone, “Luke’s Diner.” Definitely meant to grab a picture with him (sorry Justin) but he was totally filling the part (in a good way – he wasn’t crabby). So that was really cool! Again, just made the whole experience feel that much more real. Still pinching myself about it, though!
Once we got past the door and inside, we were greeted by this very typical, lifesize cutout of Luke Danes himself! Even though there was a pretty fierce no phones or taking pictures of food policy, the rules were merely suggestions and not taken too seriously 😉
I have to give a total shout out to our awesome barista’s at Land of a Thousand Hills – Atlantic Station coffee shop! They had been there since six in the morning (at this point it was about 12:30 or so) and they were nothing but smiles, kindness and totally in character. They greated us with, “Hello and welcome to Luke’s Diner!” wearing their flannel, aprons and backwards baseball caps. Definitely some of the happiest barista’s I have ever met – especially after serving hours and hours on end and thousands of endless cups of coffee! So they totally made the experience all the more excellent.
P.S. Here’s a link to their website – their coffee is really good and it does good to! Each cup of coffee helps a farmer and family in Rwanda. <3 http://landofathousandhills.com/
It wouldn’t be Luke’s without the no cell phones sign!
The above sign says,
“Welcome to Luke’s! This is a jumbo coffee morning. You need coffee in an IV. In honor of the 16th anniversary of the Gilmore Girls premiere, we’re celebrating the way Lorelai and Rory would. Enjoy a cup of coffee on us this morning!
Take a picture of you and your Luke’s cup, and tag whom you’ll be watching Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life with on November 25th, exclusively on Netflix.
We know Luke hates cell phones, but shh we won’t tell…
Cheers, Netflix”
Overall, it was a great experience! I am definitely going to keep this Luke’s cup for awhile (it’s currently displayed on our shelf back home) and will probably keep the Luke’s cozy forever with some of my other favorite Gilmore Girls memorabilia! SO thankful for Netflix for doing this and literally BEYOND excited to watch the revival November 25th!! Who’s with me?!
Also, if you didn’t know about the website Kirk built – it’s called Town of Star’s Hallow and it’s a pretty fun place to parooze! That’s where I found out about Luke’s Diner day – and I am sure as the premier gets closer, there will be more fun things announced.
Of course, you know I brought my Gilmore Girls tumbler with me, along with repping my tee (#fangirl) – if you want one of either of these items, they are in my shop, so definitely check ’em out! I know I’ll be wearing my gear during the premier, drinking tons of coffee as I binge watch all the episodes. I’m so excited! Anyone throwing any premier parties for the show? Tell me about it in the comments below!
