It was in the middle of Jack Sparent’s sophomore year at Cleveland State when he hit an academic wall. The school had just made the decision to scrap its wrestling team, which Sparent was a member of during his freshman year. A business management degree seemed to lose its appeal.
At 21, Sparent dropped out. He turned to bartending and carpentry gigs for a paycheck. Throughout that stint a simmering idea remained in his back pocket: take over the Little Italy bar that’s been in his family for more than a century.
“I’ve always liked the idea of owning my own restaurant or bar,” he said. “But we were never pressured into reopening this or working here, even when we were younger.”…