Sort-of Secret: Bindi’s Burgers, an Indian-inspired smash burger operation inside a Little Italy bar

The sort-of secret: Bindi’s Burgers, an Indian-inspired smash burger operation inside the Monarch Tavern You may have heard of it if: The Monarch is your local watering hole or you were a patron of one of chef Remo Lobo’s pop-ups But you probably haven’t tried it because: Lobo has only been smashing patties at the new location since September

Hospitality is in Remo Lobo’s blood. “My parents are both Goan,” he says. “But I was born in Kuwait because my father worked as a manager at the Radisson.” The Lobos went back and forth between Goa and the Persian Gulf quite a bit, but they also travelled more widely thanks to the perks of working for a large hotel chain. All of that travel instilled in Lobo a love of good food—though his parents had something to do with it too. “My mom and dad were foodies before that was even a term,” he says. “My mom explored all sorts of cuisines when she cooked, so we were exposed to all kinds of foods and flavours from a very young age.”

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When the Gulf War broke out in 1990, Lobo and his family fled Kuwait. “I was only five years old, so I don’t remember much other than that there was sand, and then there was grass,” he says. When they first got to Canada, they moved around Toronto’s outer ring—first to Tillsonburg, then to Scarborough—before settling in Aurora. “It’s a typical immigrant story,” says Lobo. “My parents had to start all over again and really grind to find jobs. I remember them walking to different McDonald’s locations, looking for work. Eventually they found their way back into the hotel industry.”

With parents working around the clock, Lobo and his older sister, Misha, had to fend for themselves, which hastened Lobo’s entry into the food industry. At 15, he landed a job as a dishwasher at Oakland Hall, a fine-dining restaurant in Aurora. “It was the first time I got a taste of all of the things I had seen on television in terms of properly executed fine dining. I loved every aspect of it,” he says. The restaurant’s owner recognized something special in Lobo: he took him off dish duty, promoted him to garde manger and eventually let him develop recipes for daily specials.

After high school, Lobo moved to Ireland to study hospitality at the Shannon College of Hotel Management. “It covered everything from front-of-house management to back-of-house operations,” he says. After earning his degree, Lobo worked in management at the Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott. “I worked there for eight months, but it just wasn’t for me. I had a whole creative side that the job wasn’t fulfilling.”

After moving back to the GTA in 2010, Lobo got a job working the line at a tiny Portuguese chicken joint called the Chicken Place, owned by Pedro Pereira, who now owns the Fishbone Restaurant Group. “He was the first of many talented and driven entrepreneurial people who inspired me,” says Lobo.

He stayed there for a couple of years before moving to downtown Toronto, where he quickly realized he couldn’t support himself on a line chef’s salary. Instead, he started serving at and managing restaurants around the city, eventually landing a job at the now-closed Splendido. “Working front-of-house at a place as serious as Splendido, you had to know just as much about the food as the people making it—and that made me crave the kitchen again,” he says.

After his stint at Splendido, Lobo bounced around for the next few years: working in the kitchens of Montecito, Fiorentina, Dinette and Piano Piano; hosting a cannabis-infused supper club series; then more front-of-house managing at Bar Neon, La Palma and Pizzeria Libretto.

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Then, in 2023, while working a shift at Libretto, the name Bindi’s Burgers popped into his head. “I couldn’t shake the name,” says Lobo. “It instantly became a concept in my brain, and I decided I was going to make it happen.” For his first pop-up, held at the Opium Bar on Dundas West, Lobo’s short menu listed two things: hand-cut fries and the Bindi Burger, a smashed patty of ground beef and lamb topped with, among other things, a vibrantly spiced tomato relish and a secret sauce featuring chunks of Moshe’s kosher pickle, diced onion and chaat masala. It was an instant success.

Two Sundays a month, Lobo took his business on the road, popping up at Toronto breweries to sell his burgers. “I was getting so busy and growing too quickly,” he says. “I didn’t even have a proper workspace—I was scolded for using the Libretto kitchen as a prep station. I knew that if I was going to make Bindi’s work, I had to round out my concept and find it a home.”

And that’s what he did. Last year, Lobo took out a loan, expanded the menu and found the perfect location on the second floor of the Monarch Tavern—where Zane Caplansky got his start. “I want people to say yes to Indian food more than they say no. I thought the best way to make this happen was to turn delicious classic American diner food into something even better,” he says.

From his new home base, Lobo churns out his classic Bindi’s Burger (also available in a Beyond Meat version) alongside a few new items. His take on chicken nuggets sees bite-size pieces of flour-dredged chicken thigh marinated in yogurt and masala for 24 hours, then deep-fried and served with a signature butter chicken sauce for dunking. And instead of mozzarella sticks, he deep-fries strips of spiced paneer and provides a bright house tomato chutney in place of played-out marinara. There’s also Bindi’s bacon, lettuce and tomato chutney sandwich as well as a spicy ground chicken burger. Loaded masala fries are blanketed in queso, more of that tomato chutney, crispy bits of ground beef and lamb, and fresh cilantro and mint. To wash all that richness down: a fresh mango lassi. “It’s the South Asian milkshake,” says Lobo “And it’s healthy too.”

Bindi’s Burgers, Upstairs at the Monarch, 12 Clinton St., bindisburgers.com, @bindisburgers