Fans of the show Gilmore Girls have something new to be excited about – though there’s still over a month until the premiere of new episodes on Netflix.
On 5 October – the same date that the show first aired in 2000 – hundreds of cafes and coffee shops around the US and Canada will be converted into Luke’s Diner, the iconic Stars Hollow eatery and primary source that fueled the titular characters’ coffee addiction.
The Wednesday promotion will last from 7am to noon with locations in every state and Washington DC, according to Entertainment Weekly. There will be 12 in New York City’s five boroughs. The state of Florida will have the most, with 18 locations.
Netflix will provide 200 free, 12oz cups of coffee, as well as “all the Luke’s Diner essentials” at each location, including T-shirts and aprons. Under the special Gilmore Girls coffee sleeves will be a “fun surprise” for fans who take up the offer.
No word on if fans will get to see the diner’s grumpy, plaid-wearing owner, but, according to USA Today, there might be a cardboard cutout of him enforcing the most important rule of his establishment: no cellphones.
News of the Gilmore Girls revival – called Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life – surfaced earlier this year, to the delight of fans. Actor Tanc Sade, who played Finn, has promised it “will meet all of the expectations”.
The classic, coming-of-age series followed the speed-talking antics of mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory Gilmore in the fictional New England town of Stars Hollow.
The last episode aired in 2007, and the new series will pick up with Rory, Lorelai and the gang’s lives 10 years later. The show will feature much of the same cast, but will have only four, 90-minute episodes titled winter, spring, summer and fall. All four will be unveiled on 25 November, for viewers’ binge-watching pleasure.
Heading to Luke’s Diner isn’t the only way excited fans can celebrate the show’s return. Gilmore Girls Fan Fest takes place later this month, transforming Washington Depot, Connecticut, into Stars Hollow. The three-day affair takes place in the town that inspired the show’s fictional locale, and features a very Stars Hollow-esque knit-a-thon, episode screenings, cast appearances and giveaways.
