Mayor Bloomberg was dining with a friend at a Manhattan restaurant Wednesday evening when he received a cell-phone call from the Police Department and a BlackBerry message from his office notifying him about the Howard Beach bias beating early that morning.

The mayor was scheduled to visit an injured firefighter after dinner, but when he heard about the attack by white men that left a 20-year-old black man, Glenn Moore, in critical condition with a fractured skull, he decided immediately that he wanted to visit the 106th Precinct in Queens, where the incident was under investigation, and speak to the city.

Mr. Bloomberg cut short his dinner and rushed to New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he visited the firefighter from about 8:15 to 8:45 p.m. By 9 p.m., he was crossing the 59th Street Bridge into Queens.

While still on the road, Mr. Bloomberg spoke on his cell phone with the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly. At the same time, his staff summoned key Queens officials to the precinct.

When he arrived at about 9:45, Mr. Bloomberg met with the police commissioner; the captain of the Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, Michael Osgood; the commanding officer of the precinct, John Doherty, and the Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, before addressing all New Yorkers at the top of the 11 o’clock news.

And that wasn’t the end of his night: Mr. Bloomberg didn’t go to sleep before personally phoning Reverend Alford Sharpton, who has protested the city’s response to past bias-related incidents.

By yesterday, Day 2 of the investigation, Nicholas Minucci, 21, had allegedly confessed to the attack, an alleged accomplice, Anthony Ench, 22, was arrested, and a third man, Frank Agostini, a 20-year-old who is reportedly the son of a police detective, surrendered to police.

Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly said they were pleased with the way the administration and police handled the incident.

“It was a long time before we had any idea what happened,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “There were lots of conflicting stories. As soon as we thought there was the possibility of a hate crime, we called in the Hate Crimes Task Force and they did an investigation and made an arrest and listened to the stories of the people in custody. We then called a press conference.

“I think this is probably as quick as you’ve gone from an incident that took place at 3 in the morning to solving the crime and having an announcement,” the mayor said.

Yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg kept on task, placing calls to community leaders between previously scheduled meetings in the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan. He vowed “zero tolerance for anybody that engages in this kind of conduct,” and he said New Yorkers have learned many lessons since the riot-prompting incidents in Howard Beach two decades ago. His deputy mayor for policy, Dennis Walcott, had a conversation with the victim’s mother, Chaundra Eison, and reached out again to Rev. Sharpton. Last night, Mr. Bloomberg conducted a private meeting at Queens Borough Hall with the borough president, Helen Marshall, and other community leaders.

Mr. Bloomberg wasn’t the only one giving his administration a pat on the back. Even Rev. Sharpton, who visited the family yesterday of the victim at Jamaica Hospital, praised the mayor’s efforts.

“The city cannot go back to the ’80s,” he said. “We think that the tone set by the mayor reaching out is good.”

Only one of the four Democratic mayoral candidates publicly disapproved of Mr. Bloomberg’s behavior: the Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields, who is also the only black candidate.

“Mayor Bloomberg is treating this attack as an isolated incident, when the city has seen far too many hate crimes in recent years,” she said in a statement. “A black man should be able to walk in Howard Beach and not fear for his life. A gay man should able to walk through his neighborhood in the Bronx and not fear an attack. Jewish children should not have racial epithets yelled at them as they walk to school.”

She vowed to establish an initiative to curb hate crimes, uniting religious leaders and community leaders from across the five boroughs.

The mayoral campaign of a congressman whose district straddles the Queens-Brooklyn border, Anthony Weiner, sent an e-mail to reporters yesterday quoting the congressman as calling the attack “an act of thuggery and bigotry” and cautioning Queens communities that such acts “must not, and will not, be able to pollute our neighborhoods.” He did not mention the mayor.

Nor did a former Bronx borough president, Fernando Ferrer, who issued a statement deploring the attack. “Hate crimes, which must be vigorously prosecuted, tear at the heart of what makes New York special – the collective strength and spirit of the many diverse communities in our city, which we must work every day to preserve and celebrate,” he said.

The City Council speaker, Gifford Miller, was asked if the mayor should postpone his travel plans. Mr. Bloomberg is to leave today for Los Angeles, to attend a mayoral inauguration, and then Singapore, for the International Olympic Committee’s meeting. Mr. Miller said the mayor should decide where he needs to be. But the speaker did not criticize Mr. Bloomberg.

Council Member Charles Barron, a Brooklyn Democrat who dropped his mayoral campaign months ago but visited the hospital yesterday afternoon with Rev. Sharpton and Ms. Fields, said the administration’s response was appropriate.

“They did what they were supposed to do,” he said. “Giuliani has set such a horrible climate out there, that the things that you’re normally supposed to do become extra-special.”

As of last night, Mr. Bloomberg was still scheduled to leave early this morning for California, but he indicated yesterday that he would stay in town if he needs to.

“You never know,” he said. “The mayor’s job is to set priorities.”