Sitti

Sitti has anchored South Wilmington Street in downtown Raleigh's Warehouse District for years, cooking Lebanese food named for the Arabic word for grandmother. Its non-alcoholic offering is unusual in this metro for two reasons: it is properly cheap, and it does not pretend to be anything it is not.

The drinks menu carries a section headed "Spirit-free Cocktails" with three builds, each at five dollars. None of them is an imitation of an alcoholic drink. The Pomegranate Spritz is built on pomegranate molasses — the thick, sour-sweet reduction central to Levantine cooking — cut with honey, fresh lime, ginger ale and club soda. Limon Nana is the Lebanese lemonade-with-mint that appears on tables across the region, made here with a mint-infused syrup rather than muddled leaves. The Lebanese Iced Tea combines passionfruit nectar and a ginger syrup with brewed tea. These are drinks from a drinking culture that has always had good non-alcoholic options, served at the price they should cost.

For anyone who does want the wine-shaped experience, the list carries Leitz Zero from the Rheingau in Germany — the sauvignon blanc by the glass at twelve dollars or the bottle at forty-six, and a sparkling rosé by the bottle. Leitz is among the more respected de-alcoholised producers, and having it available by the glass rather than only by the bottle is the detail that makes it usable on a weeknight.

The restaurant was recognised for its non-alcoholic beverages in a 2023 local awards round, which is a rare thing for a kitchen-led venue rather than a bar, and the spirit-free section has stayed on the menu since.