Cafe Barada Will Close Dec. 5 After 41 Years of Boston-Area Lebanese Food

Photo: John Phelan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 (file photo, 2010). Massachusetts Avenue at Cedar Street in North Cambridge, the neighborhood where Cafe Barada is located; the restaurant is not pictured.

Cafe Barada, the family-run Lebanese restaurant at 2269 Massachusetts Ave. in North Cambridge, will close its full-service dining room on Saturday, Dec. 5, the Salameh family announced in a farewell letter on the restaurant’s website. The closing ends a run of 41 years that began in Arlington in 1985, and it leaves Cafe Barada Cambridge regulars about a month to get one more plate of kebabs, hoummos and fattouch.

The family wrote that it hopes “it is not a final goodbye” and that it plans to keep sharing its food “through future endeavors.” It has not announced a new location or date.

Why Cafe Barada Is Closing

Co-owner Charbel Salameh, who runs the restaurant with his parents, told Boston.com that the decision came down to aging kitchen equipment and an uncertain future at the address. “We basically need a full kitchen makeover,” he said. The new landlords could not offer a long-term lease, he said, and without a five- or 10-year term the family did not want to put “a band-aid on something that’s broken.”

Cambridge Day reported that the building changed hands three years ago and that the family has been on a year-to-year lease since then. Salameh told the paper the kitchen needs a new walk-in cooler and that, after running the numbers, the family concluded it could not earn back the cost in a single year. A move was hard too: his mother, Claude, runs the kitchen and may be close to retirement, while a new landlord would want at least a 10-year commitment. Salameh also told Cambridge Day that most of the restaurant’s ingredients are imported from the Middle East and that those costs have climbed sharply with the war and higher oil prices.

He said a catering kitchen is one possibility. For now, the family plans a break from 60- to 80-hour work weeks.

From Arlington in 1985 to North Cambridge

According to the restaurant’s own history, Youssef Salameh founded Cafe Barada in Arlington in 1985, inspired by the family’s grandmother, Afifi Salameh. His brothers, Sami and Elias, later joined the business. NBC Boston reported that the restaurant moved to North Cambridge in 2002, which means it has spent close to 25 years on this stretch of Mass. Ave., north of Porter Square.

Charbel Salameh told Boston.com that he took over with his parents about two decades ago, planning to give it a year and sell if it failed. “We’ve done well,” he said. He described the menu as the food he grew up eating, the kind of cooking that “might look like what you’d see on my mother’s table at home.”

What to Order Before Dec. 5

The menu on the restaurant’s website is classic Lebanese home cooking. Starters include hoummos made with chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon; baba ghannouj made with eggplant and tahini; parsley-heavy tabbouleh; labany, a strained yogurt cheese spread, also served with garlic and mint; falafil; ful mudammus; and mujederra, the lentil, rice and onion dish. An appetizer sampler pairs hoummos, baba ghannouj, tabbouleh and mujederra.

Main plates center on the grill. Lamb, chicken, beef and kafta shish kebabs come with rice pilaf and grilled vegetables. Kibby, ground beef and walnuts layered in cracked wheat and baked, also comes in a vegetarian version, and stuffed grape leaves are offered with beef or without meat. Most kebabs, kibby and falafil can also be ordered as pita roll-ups. Fattouch, the lettuce and parsley salad with crunchy pita, and a lentil soup with Swiss chard round out the list. The restaurant says it also runs rotating nightly specials and takes takeout orders online.

The Boston Globe’s roundup this week singled out the kebabs, grape leaves and fattoush that built its loyal following. Cambridge Day’s Tom Meek wrote that the hoummos and labneh are some of the best “you will ever have.”

A Tough Season for Mass. Ave. Restaurants

Cafe Barada is not the only long-running spot leaving this part of Cambridge. Cambridge Day reported that the owners of Cambridge Common and the Lizard Lounge, which opened in 1996 and 1997, plan to close both at the end of May. The paper said these closings north of Harvard Square continue a trend of longtime, budget-friendly restaurants leaving or pivoting, often replaced by pricier places. We tracked other recent changes in our roundup of Cambridge restaurant openings and closings this fall.

The news lands in a busy week for the region’s dining scene. The Boston Globe’s Nov. 4 restaurant roundup also noted that Wahlburgers left the Fenway after 11 years and that Daily Provisions opens its Back Bay cafe on Boylston Street today. For more places to eat while you can, see our guide to the best restaurants in Boston.

How to Say Goodbye

The family has asked guests to visit before Dec. 5 “to share a meal, reminisce, and celebrate.” Takeout can be ordered through the restaurant’s website, and the phone number listed there is (617) 354-2112. Salameh told Boston.com that any news about what comes next will be posted on the website. “We’re going to take a little break, kind of refresh everything, and then decide on what the next steps are,” he said.

Sources

• Cafe Barada: Farewell letter, hours and location
• Cafe Barada: Menu
• Boston.com: Cafe Barada to close after more than 40 years in business (Oct. 29, 2026)
• Cambridge Day: Cambridge Common, Café Barada will close (Nov. 1, 2026)
• NBC Boston: Cafe Barada in North Cambridge is closing
• The Boston Globe: A beloved Lebanese restaurant will shutter in December (Nov. 4, 2026)

Additional sources

• Wikimedia Commons: Corner of Cedar St and Mass Ave, North Cambridge (photo source, CC BY 3.0)