On Oct. 5, 2000, Gilmore Girls premiered and won our hearts instantly. The adventures of Rory and her mother Lorelai not only gave us serious #MotherDaughterGoals, but taught us that life is too short not to eat dessert or copious amounts of Chinese food and that coffee is always appropriate, no matter the time of day. Like all good things, Gilmore Girls came to an end, but in July Netflix announced that four hour-long episodes would be released on their site in November. Fans everywhere rejoiced at the thought of being transported back to Stars Hollow and seeing what Lorelai, Rory, Luke and the rest of the Stars Hollow crew have been up to all these years.
To celebrate the return of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Netflix announced that on Oct. 5, 2016, 16 years after the release of the pilot episode, Luke’s Diner pop-up coffee shops would be opening for a limited time across the U.S. All Gilmore fans know that Luke’s Diner is THE hangout spot for anyone in Stars Hollow to hear the gossip, get some coffee and get yelled at by Luke. These pop-ups included one in Richmond, Virginia at The Lab at Alchemy Coffee, five minutes from the VCU campus. From 7 a.m. to noon, a line of students, adults and children alike formed, all eager to feel like they were a Gilmore for a day. The celebration included free coffees to the first 200 people, Luke’s decor on everything from the front door, to the cafe employees and Luke’s Diner sleeves on all hot drinks in the time the pop-up was there.
Our members really got into the spirit–including waking up a 7 a.m. to get ahead of the line! I know I’ll be saving this coffee sleeve forever.
Feeling like a Gilmore for a morning was well worth the hour-long wait and tons of people. Thanks for hooking us up Netflix, we can’t wait to binge A Day in the Life as soon as it comes out!
The tip jars at Alchemy Lab are always labeled with something vs. something else; they really got into the theme with this! #TeamJess Photo Creds: Salinna Lor
Alchemy really got into the Netflix spirit–employees wore Luke’s aprons and hats and put up a “No Cell Phones” sign, just like Luke would have. Photo Creds: Katlyn Pierre
How we all felt once we finally got to the top of the line–in time to get free coffee! Photo Creds: Katlyn Pierre
Images: cover photo- Haley McQuiller, gif 1