Seattle’s Gilmore Girls fans swarm Luke’s Coffee spots

Courtney Swinger waited for hours in the early morning Seattle weather shortly after the sun came up. And she hadn’t even had a cup of coffee yet. Rather, she was fueled by passion for the Gilmore Girls and the chance to visit Luke’s coffee shop.

After all, nothing says coffee like 6 in the morning.

Gilmore Girls set up Luke’s Cafes across nation for 16th Gilmore Girls anniversary

“It’s only going to happen once,” Swinger said. “I am standing in line for a black cup of coffee, but it’s from Luke’s, so whatever!”

Swinger was among the hordes of Gilmore Girls fans that swarmed three Seattle coffee shops Wednesday morning — Mekada Coffee, Stone Way Cafe, Drip City Coffee. It was the 16th anniversary of the first episode of the cult hit and comes one month in advance of a four-episode reunion special on Netflix.

“I have watched the show start to finish about three times … I just fell in love with it,” Swinger said. “I’m from a small town, too, so I fell in love with that aspect of it.”

Swinger waited in line for nearly two hours until she was able to reach the front of Makeda Coffee, in Greenwood.

“We got here quite a while ago and the line keeps building,” she said. “And it’s a lot longer than when we started. There’s no crazy people. Well, we’re all crazy for standing out here. Everyone is pretty excited.”

Luke’s Coffee

Hundreds of cafes and diners across the nation and Canada were transformed into Luke’s coffee locations for five hours Wednesday morning. The small diner was the social hub for the fictional town of Stars Hollow, and where town residents poured themselves coffee throughout the day.

Participating shops were provided signage, aprons, shirts and promotional cups.

Prashanti Reddy, owner of Madeka Coffee, is another huge fan of the Gilmore Girls and jumped at the opportunity to become Luke’s Coffee for one morning. While the coffee was free — paid for by the promotion — the shop sold out of all its pastries immediately.

“I was definitely not anticipating a line to the end of the block for hours,” Reddy said, shortly before the noon deadline for the promotion to end. “It’s been like this for six hours.”

“I would say it was a thousand more times successful than I thought it was going to be,” she said. “We are completely sold out. People showed up at 5 a.m. because they didn’t want to miss it, and they just hung out for a couple hours until the promotion started.”

Reddy said that her Luke’s coffee location ran out of promotional cups, but she continued to offer coffee and keep up the Stars Hollow appearance for fans.

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