The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub consists of three live-music performance rooms two family-style restaurants with full-service bars and an elegant restaurant named ZuZu (the childhood nickname of one of the proprieters). Several of the rooms also serve as art galleries offering a fresh showcase for local and international artists on a monthly basis. Both the staff and the customers are an international mix of musicians students townspeople and professionals.

The Middle East first opened its doors in 1970 as a family-owned and operated Lebanese eatery; it was a time in which ethnic restaurants of all kinds were sprouting up all over Cambridge. Customers were at once attracted to the Middle East and won over by the authentic home cooking the constant presence of and hospitality of the Sater family and the restaurant’s unique eclectic ambiance.

In 1975 the storefront next door was acquired and the two rooms connected to create what is now called the Upstairs. That same ye