Imagine this. You have just sat down at your routine coffee shop. You’ve ordered your usual order of hot coffee, and a stack of warm chocolate chip pancakes. As you wait on your order you notice the grouchy, yet charming, diner owner reprimanding a costumer for taking a call inside. His flannel, and backwards cap remind you of a place you have longed for time and time again. What if I told you that this wasn’t just your local diner, it was Luke’s Diner. Yes, Luke’s diner from the whimsical, fictional town of Stars hollow. Now, what if I told you that this wasn’t Stars Hollow, this was your town, and this was real life. Well, on October 5th, Gilmore Girls fans all over America had their most enchanting dream become a realty.
This past Wednesday, coffee shops and diners all over the United States opened up as Luke’s diner in preparation for the Gilmore Girls Revival, airing November 25th on Netflix. Turning more than 200 locations into Luke’s, Netflix brought in Luke’s coffee cups, aprons, backwards caps, and cardboard cutouts, making it an unforgettable day for anyone involved.
After the success of the pop-up diners, people are asking if there should be a Luke’s diner permanently made, so fans can visit year round. Although this idea might sound like something a lifelong fan, like me, would go crazy for, it’s not; and here’s why. If Luke’s diner was made a permanent destination, it would inevitably be a chain, which in my opinion would be against everything Luke would have wanted. I’m not a monster, I would love to live in Stars Hollow, and get coffee from Luke’s with Lorelai and Rory every morning, but that’s just it, it wouldn’t be Stars Hollow and Lorelai and Rory wouldn’t be there. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible to recreate something as magical as the iconic fictional diner that many of us have watched for years. Luke’s is more than just a diner it’s the place where it all began. The pilot begins at Luke’s with Lorelai on her sixth cup off coffee and the seventh season ends at Luke’s as Lorelai and Rory have one last coffee together.
Every person who's ever loved "Gilmore Girls" has been to Luke’s diner, and imagined it in a different way. The Gilmore Girls Revival is showing us we can go home again, and revisit our own version one more time. I admit I’m probably the unpopular opinion when it comes to creating a real-life version of Luke’s, but I think that keeping it fictional would respect the authenticity of the franchise all together. Sometimes the best things are kept as they are. Not every successful TV show or movie should have their own theme park, and restaurant just because they can. I would love to have a coffee at Luke’s just as much as the next fan, but until Luke Dane’s walks out the TV and makes it himself, a Starbucks coffee and Gilmore Girls marathon will have to do.
