The man behind the stunning Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen in Morristown

by Esther Davidowitz, North Jersey Record

When Jason Frankiewic, a Lyndhurst resident, first began to lunch at Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen in Morristown, he couldn't help but notice the same guy sitting at the bar every time. One day, the man asked him what he thought of the wine. 

Few restaurants, Frankiewic told him, actually serve wine at the right temperature and too few serve wine in the right stemware. Jockey Hollow does both, he said. "I'm really impressed."

"By the way," he added. "I'm Jason Frankiewic and I'm an attorney."

"By the way," the man said, "I'm Chris Cannon and I own this place."

Christopher Cannon, owner of Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen (Photo: Kevin R. Wexler/NorthJersey.com)

"Own" is a huge understatement. Christopher Cannon is the Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen (JKBH), the longtime abandoned 15,000-square-foot Italianate mansion that five years ago the 58-year-old longtime New York City restaurateur turned into a stunning, bustling four-restaurant compound — a cynosure on South Street.

Every piece of artwork, every piece of furniture, every light fixture, and glass, wine bottle, craft beer, and tile Cannon chose and bought. "I found most everything for the place on eBay," said the father of three, a Mountain Lakes resident since 2001.

Owner of Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen, Christopher Canon poses with a glass of wine, in Morristown. Wednesday, March 27, 2019 (Photo: Kevin R. Wexler/NorthJersey.com)

Why house four restaurants — a boisterous cocktail lounge, a contemporary raw bar, a basement beer hall and a fine-dine seafood restaurant — in one space? "I'm not catering to one clientele," Cannon answered.

He's also responsible for the extraordinary 20,000-bottle wine program that has garnered JHBK a Wine Spectator Award for Excellence. "I seek out wines not from your typical areas — great wines that are well priced," said Cannon, an unabashed, passionate oenophile. His menu lists 60 underrated wines for under $60. 

"I've never seen a wine list that compares to his," said Vince Caracciolo, a Florham Park resident and regional manager for a cyber-security firm. "It's made up of boutique wines at incredibly reasonable prices."

Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen is located on South St. in Morristown. Wednesday, March 27, 2019 (Photo: Kevin R. Wexler/NorthJersey.com)

Cannon also has a hand on what diners eat at JHBK, proposing the direction and sometimes the items on the menu. If something is less than stellar, Cannon, who loves to cook (every workday he rushes home at 3 p.m. to make dinner for his family and then returns to JHBK), doesn't hesitate to tell his chefs. "I let them know," he said."I'm a better cook than some of the chefs I've hired."

"The only thing I don't do is wash pots," Cannon said with a laugh.

He also doesn't give up.

Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen is Cannon's comeback from what could be seen as a real-life Shakespearean tragedy. For years, he was one of Manhattan's most prominent and successful restaurateurs. "The first five dates with my wife, we would never get a check at any restaurant. When we finally got a check, she was miffed. Now, she knows," he quipped, "I'm a dumb schmuck." It was his wife, a financial planner, who brought the family to New Jersey. "After 9/11, she didn't want to be in the city." 

At some point, Cannon and his partner, the celebrated chef Michael White, achieved the nearly impossible: Each of their three restaurants (Marea, Alto and Convivio) were awarded three stars from the New York Times within the years 2007 to 2009. They also managed to receive altogether five Michelin stars. 

"We were the hottest thing in New York for awhile," Cannon said. 

Two years later, he was out.

"They" — his partners — "forced me out," Cannon said. "It was bad." 

For the next eight months Cannon did little but hang with his wife and three kids, ride his bike and feel lousy. "It took me that long to get my head out of my rear end," he said. Once he stopped moping, he knew that he didn't want to quit the restaurant world. "This is what I love doing," he said. "I wasn't going to let these guys stop me from doing what I love doing most."

Ergo, Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen.

The Vail Mansion on South Street in Morristown was built between 1916 and 1918. It currently serves as Chris Cannon's high end Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen (Photo: Bob Karp/Staff Photographer)

Cannon, who grew up on the Upper East Side with three brothers and is a Brown University alum, was first shown the building in 2010. Built in the early 20th century by the architect who built Kykuit, John D. Rockefeller's estate in Westchester, the Italianate palazzo first served as the home of Theodore Vail, the president of AT&T (JHBK's cocktail lounge is called The Vail Bar).

"I only recently found out that the same marble used here was used in the AT&T building in the city," Cannon said.

After Vail's death, the mansion with its grand marble staircase, super high ceilings and long reflecting pool morphed into the Morristown City Hall (the basement, now The Rathskeller beer hall, was a prison of sorts). And when City Hall moved to another part of town, the estate sat vacant.

"I fell in love with the building," Cannon said. "But my partners weren't interested in New Jersey and I didn't know the Jersey market that well."

But he couldn't forget it. After all, running restaurants is all he ever wanted to do. "My parents didn't take us to restaurants the way parents do now," he said. "But twice a year, we went to this seafood restaurant that was a sister to the Coach House and I just thought it was the coolest thing. I loved everything about it. I knew I wanted to be a restaurateur."

He worked in New York City a bit, then went to Europe, and afterwards did stints at several luxe restaurants in Manhattan — Palio, Judson Grill, Remi. "I did everything," he said, "bought the wine, arranged the flowers, cooked. I worked my tail off."

And it showed. "Chris has it all," said Ben Chekroun, dining room director of Le Bernardin, the exalted French restaurant in Manhattan. "He has amazing wine knowledge, he has management skills, and he can operate a restaurant front and back. He is the complete package."

Cannon loved the work. "A restaurant is like theater. You are an actor. You have to be charming. There's energy. It's happening."

The theaters got more grand and more prestigious and Cannon was getting, figuratively, standing ovations from diners and press alike — then it all unceremoniously ended.

Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen is located on South St. in Morristown. Wednesday, March 27, 2019 (Photo: Kevin R. Wexler/NorthJersey.com)

When, after the ugly business divorce, he found out that the Vail estate was still available, he pounced. Twenty-eight investors, $5.5 million and three-and-a-half years later, he opened Jockey Hollow.

"So many restaurants today are pasteurized: blonde wood, same menu, same concept," he said. "Where's the culture? Where's the individuality? The goal of Jockey Hollow was to create a place that can't be replicated." 

Stephen Sottile of Morristown, a frequent patron of JKBH, is among many who believe Cannon has achieved his goal. "I've eaten at many of the finest places in the world," he said. "Chris brings the best of everything to North Jersey. It's like you're in Paris, Florence or Venice eating in a nice place."

Caracciolo of Florham Park adds, "He's a consummate host. He's like a pinball, moving from place to place making sure everything is going right."

And it seems everything is going right. "I want to be the quintessential restaurateur," Cannon said. Jockey Hollow, he believes, has helped him become just that. "You couldn't create this anywhere else," he said. "It has its own terroir. It has history behind it." 

And most importantly it has Chris Cannon. 

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https://www.northjersey.com/story/entertainment/dining/2019/04/19/man-behind-jockey-hollow-bar-kitchen-in-morristown/3096840002/