The wake for Joseph Sater, a co-founder and longtime manager of The Middle East nightclub and restaurant in Central Square, will take place Monday, with a funeral to follow on Tuesday in Jamaica Plain, according to club spokesperson Clay Fernald.
Sater passed away March 2 in his home in Hollywood, Fla.; the Sater family believes he suffered a heart attack. He was 73.
Sater and his brother Nabil Sater transformed a modest Lebanese restaurant and bar in Cambridge into a vibrant multi-stage live-music venue and cultural keystone of Central Square over the course of more than four decades. Originally opened as The Middle East in 1970, the business expanded into live performance in the 1990s, gradually expanding to include multiple performance spaces — from the intimate Zuzu to the energetic Downstairs room and the Sonia stage on Brookline Street — helping define Central Square as one of Greater Boston’s signature destinations for local and touring musicians, including Aerosmith, The Black Keys, Amanda Palmer, Billie Eilish and many more.
For 44 years, Sater served as general manager of The Middle East, shepherding the venue through the shifting tides of Boston’s music scene and hosting thousands of performances that showcased rock, punk, hip-hop, jazz and countless other styles. Under his stewardship, the club became a beloved home for emerging artists and devoted audiences alike.
The venues were noted not only for their music but also for their resilience and adaptability in the face of development pressures and changing neighborhood dynamics. The family purchased the space in 2009. Becoming landlords changed the dynamic of the neighborhood, leading to the closure of venues like T.T. the Bear. Plans to develop housing and a hotel or to sell the property have not come to fruition.
Sater retired from day-to-day operations in 2018 amid allegations of sexual harassment that he and the venue said were false. Charges were never filed, but Sater ultimately stepped aside, saying he did not want to be a distraction to the business and its staff. Following his retirement, he relocated to Florida, where he remained until his death.
Many former and current employees turned friends recall Sater with fondness, remembering him for his abundance and generosity. Throughout the years, Sater offered employment, opportunities for emerging artists to showcase their work, free meals for the houseless, and reduced-priced housing.
“He exuded all the generosity and the hospitality that is very customary of Middle Eastern culture,” said Garabed Setrakian, who met Sater in 1998 after immigrating from Montreal. Sater offered Setrakian his first business opportunity as a web developer for ticket sales. “If the Middle East hired you to build their entertainment website, of course you’re worthwhile. It gave me a lot of credibility,” Setrakian said.
Sater welcomed people whether they were “the crème de la crème or the lowest caste,” Setrakian said. “You had all kinds of people [at the Middle East], not only immigrants. You had all religions, all socio-economic statuses at a great party,” Fuentes said.
Sater hosted Christmas parties at the Middle East for lower-income residents in collaboration with the Central Square Business Association, recalled Gus Rancatore, co-founder of Toscanini’s ice cream. Sater also offered free meals to homeless people, Rancatore recalled. The two men were both involved with a group called International Restaurants of Central Square that worked to improve the neighborhood.
Katia Fuentes, a former filmmaker and journalist, met Sater in 1995 after immigrating from Mexico, and worked for three years for the Middle East and Sater’s other venues. She said the Sater family became her family away from home. Fuentes lived in one of Sater’s apartments at a reduced rent on Auburn Street. “He was kind, and he was interested in people, and he really wanted to help people,” Fuentes said.
Fuentes later moved to San Francisco but stayed in touch with Sater up until his death. “The person who I know as Joseph and his family are a wonderful family,” Fuentes said. She said the allegations had not changed “my perception or my love of them.”
Sater is survived by his siblings Nabil, Sonia, Fadia, and Ghaleb, and the extended Sater family.
The wake will be held at Carroll-Thomas Funeral Home in Hyde Park Monday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The funeral will be at Our Lady of the Cedars of Lebanon Church in Jamaica Plain on Tuesday at 11 a.m.
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