The 3 Friends Who Went From Music, War Zones & Movies to Making Burgers That Mumbai Loves

There is something deeply satisfying about a really good burger.

The soft bun, a juicy patty, melted cheese and sauces coming together in one generous bite. It is the kind of food that does not need much explaining. You take a bite, get a little messy, and go back for another.

For three friends in 2012, that simple enjoyment became the starting point for an unlikely business idea.

Jimmy Bhore was a musician and the lead vocalist of heavy metal band Zygnema, while also working in marketing. Sijo Mathew had worked as a war contractor and had once turned a makeshift recreation centre in Kabul into a tiki bar. Anant Chowdhary came from movie marketing, having worked with agencies such as Vineyards Films. None of them had a background in food.

Yet, between them, they would go on to build three burger businesses that became part of Mumbai’s growing burger culture.

For Jimmy, the story began in 2012, when he decided to return to his hometown, Sangli, with the idea of opening a café.

From music to a burger cart

Jimmy had been thinking about opening a burger joint for years.

His love for the food had partly come from his travels with Zygnema. Touring across Europe and other countries exposed him to burgers beyond the familiar fast-food versions he had grown up seeing. He wanted to bring some of that experience back home.

So he chose Sangli, where he felt there was a promising market, particularly among students who had limited options for eating out.

But getting the café off the ground did not go as planned.

After several trials, Jimmy eventually found himself considering something much smaller: a cart.

There was just one problem. He did not know how to run one.

So he approached Santosh Mali, who owned a cart called Ganesh Vada Pav, and asked if he could learn by simply standing around and helping.

Jimmy offered to wash utensils and do whatever work was needed, as long as he could observe and learn. He essentially inserted himself into the everyday workings of the cart, gradually picking up the practical lessons that would help him run his own.

That cart became the first version of what would eventually become Jimis Burger.

Three unlikely food entrepreneurs

Jimmy’s journey was not entirely unique among the three.

Sijo, who co-founded Good Flippin’, had grown up in Bahrain in a family where barbecuing was a regular part of life. Anant, meanwhile, had always been a food lover and began experimenting with cooking at home, partly because eating out was not something he could regularly afford.

Their routes into food were different, but none followed the conventional path of culinary school, hotel management or years spent running restaurants.

They learnt by experimenting, asking questions, working with people who knew the trade and, in Jimmy’s case, literally watching someone else run a food cart.

Turning a handcart into a growing chain

Jimmy’s first year in Sangli proved that the idea had potential.

The café that never quite materialised had turned into a cart, and the cart found its audience. Eventually, Jimmy returned to Mumbai, carrying with him something far more valuable than a polished business plan: a better understanding of what it meant to actually make and sell food.

The journey from that first handcart to a growing chain was gradual. In the early years, Jimmy was personally involved with customers, grilling burgers and hearing their reactions firsthand. That direct connection became an important part of how Jimis evolved.

What began as a musician’s long-standing fascination with burgers had, almost unexpectedly, become a business.

And perhaps that is what makes the story of Jimis Burger worth looking at beyond the burgers themselves.

Before there were multiple outlets, there was Jimmy returning to Sangli with an idea he had carried for years, a café that did not work out as planned, and a borrowed lesson from a vada pav cart.

Sometimes, the road into an entirely new industry begins with knowing what you do not know, and being willing to learn from whoever is already doing it.

Sources: 

‘A Tale Between Breads: How Three Men With No Background In Food, Built Mumbai’s Most Formidable Burger Joints’ by Suman Quazi for Man’s World, Published on 26 June 2023.

Jimis burger

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