Mt. Vernon Cafes Open New Outposts in West Baltimore and Locust Point

Mt. Vernon cafés are following customers across the city: Minh Quang Vo’s The Bun Shop has opened a smaller outpost inside the 4MLK Building at the University of Maryland Biopark in West Baltimore, and Ziad Maalouf’s Cafe Fili announced a 2,000 sq. ft. location on the ground floor of Anthem House at 900 E. Fort Ave., slated to open in spring 2026. Both moves place food businesses inside institutional or residential developments that promise steady daily traffic.

The Bun Shop’s West Baltimore location aims at biotech researchers and staff at the UM Biopark, offering a condensed menu of the cafe’s signature coffees and teas plus items such as Tikka Rolls, ham and gruyere turnovers, fried mac and cheese buns, and chocolate chip cookies. The Bun Shop has served Mt. Vernon for more than a decade, and owner Minh Quang Vo also opened Bijoux by Buttonwood at 801 W. Baltimore, directly across the street from the 4MLK building, to provide a heartier lunch option for neighborhood workers and visitors.

Cafe Fili’s Anthem House site occupies the former Amber space, which closed in January, and sits inside the nearly 300-unit Anthem House apartment building at 900 E. Fort Ave., a site variously described as Locust Point and Riverside. Cafe Fili plans to operate a full-service program there: daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner; a coffee bar by day; bar service and evening cocktails; and a “new evening mezze program” focused on small plates. The restaurant’s menu is billed as an elevated take on Lebanese and other Middle Eastern dishes, including varieties of hummus, shawarma, and baklava for dessert.

Owner Ziad Maalouf, who opened the first Cafe Fili in 2017 at 816 Cathedral St. and previously ran Cafe Ole in D.C.’s Tenleytown for 20 years, framed the expansion as a neighborhood strategy: “Fili’s always done very well for us in Baltimore,” he said. On site selection he added, “We position ourselves in neighborhoods and basically those residential buildings and a community.” Cafe Fili’s social media post announcing the move read in part, “We’re thrilled to share that our next chapter begins in Riverside, inside the beautiful @anthemhouseapts community at 900 E. Fort Ave, opening Spring 2026,” and described the expansion as an evolution of the brand’s Mediterranean-inspired vision from “sunrise through our new evening mezze program.”

Maalouf is also planning broader growth in Baltimore: he intends to open two additional Cafe Fili branches in 2026, even as he closed a Bolton Hill location at 305 McMechen St. earlier this year after a rebrand. The combination of a 2,000 sq. ft. ground-floor restaurant at a nearly 300-unit building and a compact cafe inside a growing Biopark illustrates a pattern of businesses targeting built-in customer bases created by new office and residential development across Baltimore.

City diners can now find The Bun Shop offerings at 4MLK and Bijoux by Buttonwood at 801 W. Baltimore, while Cafe Fili’s full program is scheduled to arrive at Anthem House, 900 E. Fort Ave., in spring 2026; Amber vacated that 2,000 sq. ft. space in January.