"I think these conversations with landlords were extraordinary because no one hung up. It's a sign of the times," says Steve Wagenheim, CEO of Granite City Food & Brewery.

It seems that everyone is looking to trim rent.

This was truly a different kind of exercise than what most people are going through. The conversations others are having [with landlords] today concern the tough economic times: "My business is severely down. If you don't help us, we might not be in business."

And you're telling your landlords...

That we can be cash-flow positive in '09. We have taken a lot of reduction out of the financial statement, excess out of G&A, and we're learning to do more with less. We're saying, "Can you help us get to positive cash flow? It would show that at the toughest of times we could hit an important company milestone."

What was your situation?

Ours was more of a balance-sheet problem that we just can't fully correct right now because of credit markets. No one is lending. What we decided to do was to internally finance a correction on the balance sheet by going to landlords.

What was the math?

[CFO] Jim Gilbertson and I ran scenarios of different sales levels for 2009. If [sales] are down x-percent, we will need this kind of coverage. We went from $103 million down to $90 million, which we felt was our floor. It looked like we would have $2.5 million in negative cash flow. That turned out to be a 33 percent rent reduction we would ask for this year and 17.5 to 20 percent reduction next year.

For 2009 and 2010 only?

Then we go back to the original [terms]. This isn't deferred rent to be tacked on the back end.

What were you offering in return?

For helping us, we gave warrants. This was more of a partnership, and that's why we got almost 100 percent participation.

Your largest landlord received a warrant to buy a million shares at 27 cents per share. What gave him faith you'd recover?

We have a long-term relationship. He has always believed in management. We are no different than anyone else. Our stock was at $7 18 months ago. But as you know, restaurants are the first into a recession and the first ones out.

How many landlords were involved?

The situation was made a little easier because one landlord owns a significant number of stores, 15 in all. We were able to create the model for the deal with our largest landlord. Once done, we sat down with [other landlords] and talked about the economy and creating this important milestone.

Did any landlord say, "Steve, it's not all about you?"

Some guys did. But we also said we plan to be around. Banks are not lending, and we have to internally finance. They understood they had to be part of this solution.