Middle East Upstairs

History

The Middle East Upstairs is the 194-capacity concert room inside The Middle East, a five-venue complex at 472 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge’s Central Square. The business opened as a Lebanese restaurant in 1970; brothers Joseph and Nabil Sater Habib bought it in 1975 and expanded into the storefront that is now the Upstairs, booking Arab-language music and later blues and jazz. The first rock show in the room was a 1987 solo set by Roger Miller of Mission of Burma. Upstairs now sits alongside the larger Downstairs and Sonia rooms and the ZuZu and Corner restaurants as one of Greater Boston’s long-running independent stages.