Peter Shankman Tweet Joke Leads To Morton's Surprise Steak Dinner At Newark Airport (TWEETS)

Peter Shankman knew he would need a good meal when he landed at Newark Airport, but he never expected there would be one there waiting for him.

After a 3:30 AM wakeup call, a 7:00 AM flight to Miami, and a three-hour lunch meeting, Shankman settled into his seat around 4:30 PM for his same-day return flight, he wrote in his blog.

Stomach rumbling and wanting nothing more than a good steak dinner, he tweeted the following:

Hey @Mortons - can you meet me at newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks. :)less than a minute ago via TwidroydPRO Favorite Retweet ReplyPeter Shankman
petershankman

Two things about Shankman. First, he's not exactly a social media novice -- Shankman started HARO and is the founder and CEO of Geek Factory. And second, he's "a bit of a steak lover."

So Shankman, admittedly a Morton's steakhouse regular, could only be described as ecstatic when he was greeted in the terminal with a full dinner, hand delivered by a tuxedo-wearing server.

Next tweet:

Oh. My. God. I don't believe it. @mortons showed up at EWR WITH A PORTERHOUSE! http://t.co/bD8k4r0 # OMFG!less than a minute ago via TwidroydPRO Favorite Retweet ReplyPeter Shankman
petershankman

"I. Was. Floored." he wrote in his blog.

The bag contained a 24 oz. Porterhouse steak, one order of Colossal Shrimp, a side of potatoes, Morton's signature bread, two napkins, and silverware -- all free of charge.

He continued:

Morton’s Hackensack is 23.5 miles away from EWR, according to Google Maps. That meant that in just under three hours, someone at Morton’s Corporate had to see my tweet, get authorization to do this stunt, get in touch with Morton’s Hackensack, and place the order. Then Morton’s Hackensack had to cook the order, get it boxed up, and get a server to get in his car, and drive to Newark Airport (never an easy task, no matter where you’re coming from) then, (and this is the part the continues to blow me away,) while all this was happening, track down my flight, where I was landing, and be there when I walked out of security!

And that, friends, is possibly the best meal ever had at an airport.

Peter Shankman is a Huffington Post blogger. Click here to read his posts.

Comments

[DandaPanda]

09:18 AM on 08/23/2011

love love love it!

[Max Shaw]

03:43 PM on 08/22/2011

You win. That will never happen to me ever.

[hebrewzzi]

12:06 PM on 08/22/2011

Hey @NYLottery, it would be really awesome if I could win the next MegaMillions jackpot. ::crickets::

[Shelli40]

07:09 AM on 08/22/2011

Love it! I've never been to Morton's. But with that kind of service I'll definitely give it a try.

[hebrewzzi]

12:04 PM on 08/22/2011

That's why they charge $85 for a steak :-)

[Brian C Bock]

06:02 AM on 08/22/2011

So famous guy gets free stuff. This is not news.

[FreeSpeech4All]

01:03 AM on 08/21/2011

Nice to read about something positive for a change. Good story!

[henrypapillon]

06:55 PM on 08/20/2011

Not to mention digging up a guy in a tuxedo to deliver it!

[John Lattanzio]

02:15 AM on 08/20/2011

Now that is service!

[adamben]

04:53 PM on 08/19/2011

nice publicity stunt!

[Seasons Change]

04:26 PM on 08/19/2011

Fantastic! That's what customer service means... value your customers and they will value you.

[Denise Taggart]

03:21 PM on 08/19/2011

Not to shabby! I'm impressed! Next weeks news will be 1,000,000 travelers tweet Mortons!

[onetruth]

02:24 PM on 08/19/2011

Hey, I will be looking up Morton's. Great service and good publicity for doing something nice.

[mrh85]

12:57 PM on 08/19/2011

Maybe if I do this enough it will happen to me!! :)

[JackNycz]

12:41 PM on 08/19/2011

Wow - great story and all the comments are cries of publicity stunt and staged. Peter even says in the blog on his site "I had absolutely no expectations of anything from that Tweet. It’s like how we Tweet 'Dear Winter, please stop, love Peter,' or something similar." I know that the majority of the world is a bunch of pessimistic downers, but seriously? Could this not have very easily been a nice thing done by a business that values customer service and knows the impact of social media?

[MochasMom]

10:38 AM on 08/20/2011

I know, right. We've become such a cynical society, it's sad.

[Mirabai305]

11:10 AM on 08/22/2011

While funny and effective, common sense simply says this had to be a pre-planned stunt. He says he was met at the gate but you can't get past the security line without a ticket unless you are a parent accompanying a minor child. It hardly seems likely that they'd let a guy past security because some other guy tweeted he'd like a steak unless they'd laid some groundwork. It just isn't likely. Plus, how did they get the info of what flight he was on? Airlines are not exactly publishing their flight manifests.

That it was a set up doesn't take away from the funny. And clearly effective because look at all the people on this thread talking about giving them their business.

[Peter Shankman]

11:31 AM on 08/22/2011

You might want to re-read the article. I said I was met where the drivers are, not at the gate.

[DandaPanda]

09:19 AM on 08/23/2011

doubtful

[kareemachan]

12:15 PM on 08/19/2011

That's fun - and the best kind of PR a restaurant could hope to have.