One tweet can be easily lost in all the noise on Twitter. Peter Shankman found out that sometimes people actually listen.
Many of us tweet whimsical thoughts. Hopes, dreams and ruminations about the world appear all over our timelines day in and day out. As the adage goes, “Be careful what you wish for.” Peter Shankman, investment maven and founder of ‘Help A Reporter Out’, posted a wish – sarcastically it seemed – on Twitter last week. And to his surprise, it came true.
Given the context (and the emoticon), Shankman’s wish was most certainly playful. As his relation of the story goes, his whirlwind day began with a dawn flight from Newark to Tampa, a quick lunch meeting, and then an evening flight back to Newark. While he waited for his plane to take off back to the New York area, he notes, “I had visions of a steak in my head.” The self-professed steak lover tapped out a quick tweet, dreaming of a delicious dinner upon touching down.
(PHOTOS: The Search for the Perfect Steak)
Twitter / Peter Shankman
Never did he expect to be greeted by exactly that: a tuxedoed waiter from Morton’s bearing such a steak, with all the trimmings, waiting for him at the terminal. He writes: “I. Was. Floored.”
Now Shankman is no Morton’s novice. He makes no secret that he’s a huge fan and dines there often. And as a high-powered New Yorker (and frequent tweeter to his more than 100,000 followers), Morton’s knows him, too. But this was a huge stunt with many cogs – and many possible hitches (the nearest Morton’s is more than 20 miles from Newark Airport, for starters). The fact that such a major restaurant chain could spearhead this type of operation in such a short amount of time based on a simple tweet, well, that is enough to restore our faith in the world of big business.
While we all may not have the same luck bombarding Morton’s with tweets, for Shankman, this was one dinner that surely never tasted sweeter.
Nick Carbone is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @nickcarbone. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.