MINNEAPOLIS, January 8, 2007 - Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. (Nasdaq:GCFB) a Modern American upscale casual restaurant chain, is pleased to announce that it has been granted a patent by the United States Patent Office for its proprietary beer brewing process. This patent protects the Company's revolutionary brewing process which allows the Company to efficiently continue the national expansion of its restaurant concept by removing the traditional investment requirements and operational complexities associated with serving fresh beer brewed on premise.

"We are very pleased to enjoy Federal Patent Protection for a beer brewing process that provides a competitive barrier to entry for our restaurant chain and another way to protect our already strong unit level profitability," commented Steve Wagenheim, Granite City's CEO and President. "We converted a revolutionary idea, drafted on the back of a napkin (Fermentus InterruptusTM ), to a proprietary brewing process that allows us to continue our efficient national expansion while avoiding the costly investment, operational and regulatory barriers our competitors must contend with."

The Company's patent protects the method and apparatus for maintaining a centralized facility for the production of unfermented and unprocessed hopped wort (one of the last steps of the beer brewing production process) which is then transported to Company restaurant fermentation tanks where it is finished into beer. "This patent enables us to eliminate many restaurant equipment capital expenses and to create significant economies of scale as we grow," commented Mr. Wagenheim. "This becomes extremely important as we expand in multiple states since regulatory restrictions prohibit transport of finished beer products across state lines without expensive third party carriers. We own the franchise."

"We are a serious food-driven concept first, but our hand-crafted beers are very popular and a point-of-differentiation with our loyal and frequent customers," commented Tim Cary, Granite City's Chief Operating Officer. "We have great beer products that compliment our menu and we get consumer credit for freshly brewed proprietary products even though we have eliminated much of the labor and operational complexity through our 'par-brewing' process. From an operational standpoint we refer to this as 'beverage leverage', and we are the only operator in the restaurant business that has it."

Granite City is open daily for lunch, dinner and gatherings from 11 a.m. to midnight along with brunch on Sundays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. currently operates 18 Granite City Food & Brewery upscale casual dining restaurants featuring a broad menu of popular made-from-scratch food items and handcrafted beers. Its broad menu offers traditional and regional foods served in generous portions at reasonable prices, affording guests an excellent value and great dining experience. The first Granite City restaurant opened in St. Cloud, MN in June 1999 and the Company subsequently expanded to other Midwest markets. The Company also operates a beer production facility which is used to provide raw material support to its restaurants to create operational efficiencies.

Certain statements made in this press release of a non-historical nature constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such factors include, but are not limited to, changes in economic conditions, changes in consumer preferences or discretionary consumer spending, a significant change in the performance of any existing units, a failure to realize the projected benefits of using our proprietary brewing method, including the projected advantages and favorable impact upon our profitability through use of our proprietary brewing method, our ability to obtain financing for, and complete construction of, additional restaurants at acceptable costs, our ability to implement and execute Fermentus Interruptus and the risks and uncertainties described in the Company's Form 10-KSB filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 27, 2006.

CONTACT:
Steve Wagenheim
Chief Executive Officer
(952) 215-0660