Buy a record, eat a sandwich, hear a band at Boston Music Awards-nominated Medford venue Deep Cuts
Deep Cuts in Medford, is a hub for vinyl, tapes and CDs that doubles as an independent live music venue where you can also go into the other room and play pinball or eat a sandwich. It has also been nominated as Music Venue of the Year by the Boston Music Awards for 2025.
By Daisy Levine
There’s a time machine just north of the Mystic Valley Parkway, right where you hit Medford Square.
It looks like a bar, but it’s actually part record store, concert hall, sandwich shop and pinball arcade. It’s everything you didn’t know you needed. What’s more – it’s where local bands want to play.
Ian McGregor originally imagined something a lot smaller, but it turned into much more. When he opened Deep Cuts in 2023, he just thought it would be cool to bring together all the things he really loves.
“From booking shows forever to working in kitchens, I just wanted to combine it all,” said McGregor. “This was kind of the end goal.”
Deep Cuts, at 21 Main St. in Medford, is a hub for vinyl, tapes and CDs that doubles as an independent live music venue where you can also go into the other room and play pinball or eat a sandwich.
It started as a pop-up deli in 2018. McGregor then turned it into a takeout sandwich shop in a West Medford storefront in 2021. In 2023, he opened Deep Cuts in Medford Square, with a bar, record shop, pinball room and concert hall that can hold 240 people.
It was an idea born out of doing something for the local music scene, McGregor said. He began booking indie shows with company Eye Design in 2010, after spending 20 years in the restaurant industry, and decided to combine the two things he knew the most about.
Serving local regulars is important, McGregor said, but it’s not just the customers he’s concerned about. Deep Cuts also stands as an initiative to keep local bands on the horizon, providing a consistent place for them to play.
“We try to get as local bands as possible, ’cause it’s their home,” he said. “Regulars is what keeps things going.”
For their support of the local music scene, Deep Cuts has been nominated for the Boston Music Awards under the Music Venue of the Year (under 250 capacity) category.
Founded in 1987, the Boston Music Awards honors artists, industry leaders and others involved in the local music scene. The awards ceremony takes place Dec. 17 at Big Night Live, 110 Causeway St., Boston.
Medford has several other nominees at this year’s Boston Music Awards. Check them out here.
The members of Declaw, a Boston-area grunge band that plays regularly at Deep Cuts, say they owe much of the band’s success to the place. They say they’re eternally grateful that a place like that can exist outside Boston’s zip codes, where venues are more competitive.
“It just goes to show how natural this place is,” said Declaw bassist and vocalist Jovani Villegas, who lives in Somerville. “What they do for the scene, and [what] they do to support us and make us feel like we have a home to celebrate our music, to celebrate our releases, all that stuff.”
Daniel Hastings began working with McGregor in 2018, at the sandwich pop-up, “to see how that would go,” McGregor said.
“The dream was always to stick with them until they accomplished this, basically,” Hastings said. “It was me and Ian, basically there [in West Medford] every day, making sandwiches together, having a blast.”
Deep Cuts keeps adding new things to keep the place fresh as the years come.
“It’s really cool to see Ian talk about this for over 10 years, and then to see it come together was amazing,” Hastings said. “We’re still building. We’re still figuring this out…It’s awesome to be part of it.”
Daisy Levine is a journalism student at Boston University. This story is part of a partnership between Gotta Know Medford and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
