Today’s Boston Globe has a story about the growing number of local restaurants using Twitter, including one that started tweeting several months before the restaurant opened … and had a full house when it finally did. A couple choice parts:

What can you do with 140 characters or less, the length of each tweet? A lot, restaurants are discovering – everything from posting daily specials to luring followers with offers of free appetizers to offering a glimpse of kitchen life. It’s all good for business.

and

One reason for Twitter’s popularity is that it’s both easy and inexpensive. There’s no need to hire someone to design a website. You just log on and start posting. “You could be a pizza guy at a greasy spoon sending text messages from a three-year-old cellphone,” Cohen said. “You don’t need technology to be spreading your message on Twitter. It’s very utilitarian.”

Even better than that are some of the quotes from the restaurant owners and staff. But you should read the full article to see those.