My first thought as I woke up was: “Why am I doing this?” It was 6:30 a.m. on a Wednesday. A Wednesday! As the old adage goes, TGIW (Thank God It’s Wednesday). But, I’ll do anything for coffee—especially free coffee.

As fans of “Gilmore Girls” know, hundreds of coffee shops across the country transformed into Luke’s Diner last week, including Coffee Cartel in the Central West End. This promotion, in honor of the revival of the series coming to Netflix this fall and the 16th anniversary of the show’s original premiere, offered free coffee to the first 250 guests.

As my friends and I rolled up to Coffee Cartel with our very confused Uber driver, we joined the mass of sweatpants-wearing girls wrapped around the corner of the store. The outside of the cafe featured the classic Luke’s sign out front, something that did not go unnoticed by the TV reporter struggling to find people to interact with her Facebook Live video.

Inside of the store, each barista wore a flannel shirt with a backwards cap, the two items that comprise 95 percent of lead character Luke Danes’ wardrobe on the show. As I neared the front of the line about 30 minutes later, I started to notice the amount of people wearing “Gilmore Girls” sweatshirts and hats—one guest was even dressed in Lorelai’s tie-dye shirt and cutoff shorts combo outfit from the series’ pilot.

There were small touches throughout the store that made it feel like we had stepped into Stars Hollow, Conn. Each coffee cup had a sleeve with the Luke’s logo on it, a quote from the show somehow related to coffee (there are an abundance of choices), and a Snapchat QR code to unlock a special feature for a day.

For some, “Gilmore Girls” is just a show, but for many mothers, daughters and families, it’s a connection that transcends generational lines. It represents struggles that many people face, and honestly demonstrates aspects of an unusual family situation unseen in other shows, even if it casts characters in a negative light for a period of time.

In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to drink the two inches of coffee thrust into my hand by the surly barista—and not in the cute cranky Luke way, in the “why-are-there-so-many-people-here-this-is-not-normal” way—and walked a block down the road to the Starbucks and back into the real world.