New Bistro Brings International Flavor to Catonsville

Rehan Khan was excited to turn the former Tiffany’s Pizza on Frederick Road into a sit-down restaurant, but renovations forced him to keep the building closed for more than two years.

“We had to gut out everything, start all over,” he said.

After replacing virtually everything in the place, including building a brand-new kitchen, Khan opened Umami Global Bistro on January 25.

While he kept the pizza and burgers, Khan’s restaurant specializes in Mediterranean cuisine like shawarma, falafel, hummus, gyros and babaganoush.

Umami uses all organic meat, and the lamb and beef is all grass-fed. While going the extra mile for those ingredients is a lot of work, Khan believes the freshness and health benefits of unprocessed food is worth it in the long run.

He opened his restaurant in Catonsville because of the tightness of the community, the history and the thriving Main Street atmosphere of Frederick Road, which already had many highly regarded restaurants, he said.

“The more restaurants available, the more people are going to come out,” he said.

Khan, a graduate of the Community College of Baltimore County, has also been catering local events, and hopes to continue expand that side of the business going forward.

Umami Global Bistro is located at 712 Frederick Road. It is open Tuesday – Thursday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m., Friday – Saturday 11 a.m. – 10 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. and closed Monday.