MINNEAPOLIS, March 12, 2007 - Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd., (Nasdaq: GCFB) a Modern American upscale casual restaurant chain announced on March 8, 2006 that it has completed a private placement of $14.0 million of common stock to a limited number of new and existing accredited and institutional investors. The transaction involved the sale of 2,617,334 shares of common stock at a purchase price of $5.35 per share. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the placement to fund restaurant expansion, retire certain equipment lease debt and for general corporate purposes. KeyBanc Capital Markets acted as lead placement agent and Craig-Hallum Capital acted as co-placement agent for the offering.

"We are pleased to complete this offering with an outstanding group of institutional investors," commented Steve Wagenheim, President and CEO of Granite City. "Raising this capital allows us to embark on a quicker path to profitability. We believe this financing will be accretive to earnings. Our operations will now be more transparent to restaurant investors as we fund our growth in a more traditional manner. We anticipate that this new equity will provide us with capital to execute our previously announced plan to open seven new restaurants in 2007 as well as provide us with a stronger balance sheet to enable us to fund our expansion through 2008. By funding our capital expenditure budget for 2007 with equity instead of debt, we will increase our Company level cash flow and retain more capital to meet our expansion plans," continued Wagenheim.

"Looking back at our just-reported fourth quarter results, our store-level fundamentals remain strong in a challenging casual dining environment. We think our Modern American concept is on trend with consumer demand and we are very encouraged by our momentum in the marketplace," commented Wagenheim.

About Granite City

Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. is a Modern American upscale casual restaurant chain that operates 18 restaurants in eight Midwestern states. The menu features affordable yet high quality family favorite menu items prepared from made-from-scratch recipes and served in generous portions. The sophisticated yet unpretentious restaurants, proprietary food and beverage products, attractive price points and high service standards combine for a great dining experience. Granite City opened its first restaurant in 1999.

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-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 21, 2007.

CONTACT:
Peter Hausback
Chief Financial Officer
(952) 215-0674