Boatman Spirits Co., the Mediterranean restaurant-and-distillery tucked into Seaboard Station, has quietly started sending its spirits home with guests. Earlier this month, the team rolled out its first bottled lineup in Raleigh, giving the downtown spot something you can actually walk out the door with.
The opening trio, a vodka, a dry gin and a navy-strength gin, has been available to guests since Feb. 1. A public launch party is slated for Feb. 22, and in the meantime the release gives the new downtown outpost an immediate retail product while the distillery works on building out its barrel program.
What’s in the bottle
On its distillery page, Boatman Spirits Co. lists the inaugural lineup and notes that bottles have been on sale to guests since Feb. 1. The first releases are identified simply as Dry Gin, Navy Strength Gin and Vodka, with the reminder that buyers must be 21 to purchase.
According to Boatman, the team is still in active production mode and the distillery is not yet open for public tours while packaging work continues in the background.
Local flavor and botanicals
Boatman’s gin is built on a 13-botanical recipe that leans into Mediterranean flavors, including jasmine flower, sumac and Palestinian thyme, a nod to co-owner George Ghneim’s heritage.
Distiller Geremy Prichard told Axios Raleigh that having a full restaurant sitting next to the stills gives the team room to age spirits and, in his words, “put something we’re proud of in front of people.”
Regulatory change
Recent updates to state law have made on-site bottle sales a more realistic revenue stream for small distillers. The Distilled Spirits Council points to a 2021 law change, HB 890, that allowed North Carolina distillers to sell bottled spirits on Sundays, removing a key restriction on how distilleries could retail their products.
That extra flexibility helps newer operations like Boatman move bottles directly to customers instead of relying only on outside retailers to get their spirits into circulation.
How Boatman fits downtown
Boatman opened at Seaboard Station in mid-2025 as a roughly 7,000 square foot restaurant, bar and distillery built by a team of local hospitality veterans. Coverage of the opening highlighted partners Aaron Lambert, Zack Thomas, Geremy Prichard and George Ghneim, framing the concept as a Mediterranean restaurant with an in-house spirits program rather than the other way around.
The scale and design of the space were intended to position Boatman as one of Seaboard Station’s anchor dining destinations, pairing a full kitchen and bar with an active distilling operation under the same roof.
What’s next
The owners say they plan to bring a rye, a single-malt whiskey, amaros and fruit brandies online over the coming months and years as those spirits spend time in barrels.
Local event listings note an “All Hands” launch party set for Feb. 22 to formally mark the bottling debut. Until then, bottles stay available at the restaurant while the production team concentrates on filling barrels and waiting out the aging process.
For now, the initial release lets Boatman put a locally produced spirit on the table, and in the bag, while the longer-term projects quietly mature in the back.
