Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. Set to Open Store in Troy, Michigan

Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. (Nasdaq: GCFB) is bringing its recipe for success to Detroit with the announcement that it is building a new Granite City Food & Brewery® in Troy, Michigan. The new restaurant, one of 27 in the chain, features a contemporary upscale design that will serve as an enhanced prototype for future restaurants. The new Granite City Food & Brewery will be located next to the PNC Bank Building at the corner of Big Beaver Road and I-75. The restaurant will be approximately 9,800 square feet and contain seating for 300 guests. Slated to open in mid-February 2012 the Troy location’s newly designed interior will feature a wrap-around bar which flows into an atrium, an exposed kitchen, and a central wood-fired pizza oven. In addition to more than 90 made-from-scratch menu items, there will also be regional favorites and locally sourced ingredients.

"Our concept is to combine an upscale dining experience and great service with reasonably-priced, high quality food and beverages,” said Steve Wagenheim, President and Founder. "People enjoy our cozy ambience and special offers such as our Mug Club, which help make the customer experience affordable and enjoyable. Troy is a great community and it is a privilege for us to be able to give back by providing jobs and, of course, a fantastic place to eat and enjoy hand-crafted brews.”

The Troy site was chosen several years ago prior to the recession. In May 2011, Granite City received a $9 million infusion of capital from CDP Partners along with $10 million in financing from Fifth Third Bank. The transaction brought the Company capital, additional management and several new, experienced board members including, Mike Rawlings, former President of Pizza Hut and current Mayor of Dallas, Texas, Lou Mucci, the former CFO of BJ’s Restaurants, Michael Staenberg, President of THF Realty, Fouad Bashour, Founding Partner of CIC Partners and Rob Doran, former Executive Vice President of McDonald’s. Rob Doran now serves as CEO of Granite City. Since CDP’s investment, Granite City has been developing growth plans and Troy was given the go ahead after significant vetting by management and the board.

"We could not be happier to put Granite City back in a growth mode and Troy is the perfect place to begin that growth,” said Rob Doran, CEO. "This location was highly scrutinized by our team and has more growth drivers than any of our current high volume restaurants. Troy is the prime business and retail hub in the suburban Detroit market. This corridor serves as the home to some of the best restaurant volumes in the entire Metro Detroit, has excellent demographics, and a large daytime office population. Our new site is located just east of The Somerset Collections, estimated to be one of the highest grossing malls per square foot in the nation. So you can see why we are so excited to be entering this market and having the opportunity to bring our concept to the Troy area.”

Granite City Food & Brewery Ltd. is a Modern American upscale casual restaurant chain that operates 26 restaurants in 11 states. The menu features affordable yet high quality 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 and is expanding from its Midwestern base. Additional information about Granite City Food & Brewery can be found at the company’s website (www.gcfb.net).

Forward-Looking Statements
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 restaurants, our ability to continue funding our operations and meet our debt service obligations, and the risks and uncertainties described in our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 17, 2011.