Gilmore Girls fanatics take East Vancouver café by storm

Fans of the Gilmore Girls took a Vancouver café by storm after it was transformed into Luke's Diner — the trademark café from the recently revived TV show.

Vancouver's Trafiq Café and Bakery was transformed into the fictional Luke's Diner — alongside 200 other shops across Canada and the U.S. — as part of Netflix's marketing campaign behind the series' upcoming reboot.

Fans began lining up at 5:30 a.m. — nearly four hours before the shop opened its doors. The lineup stretched around the block by the time the doors opened.

"It's been an overwhelmingly successful day," said Shauna MacNeil, co-owner and front-of-house manager of the café.

Her husband and fellow co-owner Sergio Salamonovitz was equally surprised.

"A lot of us are fans. We've all watched Gilmore Girls," he said. "[But] never in our wildest dreams did we think this would be the case."

The management duo was approached by Netflix's marketing team to participate in the Gilmore Girls promotion. The restaurant was supplied with 250 collector cups of coffee to offer free of charge to the hordes of customers. But it turns out demand was much higher than anticipated.

"By 9 a.m. there were about 400 people in line, which was obviously not expected," he said.

Salamonovitz says the restaurant was prepared for the rush, scheduling all-hands-on-deck for the storm.

Fans also came prepared, providing their fellow fanatics with snacks.

The CBC's resident Gilmore Girl's die-hard Lisa Christiansen visited the lineup and chatted with some of the fans.

On The Coast5:27Vancouver cafe transformed into Luke's Diner to celebrate the Gilmore Girls revival

Vancouver cafe transformed into Luke's Diner to celebrate the Gilmore Girls revival

With files from CBC's On the Coast