Lou’s Tavern in Little Italy Gets a Second Life

Jack Sparent dropped out of Cleveland State and put his efforts into turning one of the neighborhood’s oldest bars, which has been in his family for more than a century, into an Old World-style tavern.

by Mark Oprea | Oct. 21, 2026 | 8:00 AM

Photograohed by Mark Oprea

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.”

But Sparent did, and on his 21st birthday, in November 2024, made the decision to revive Lou’s Tavern for the 21st century.

“Honestly, it wasn’t even for any specific reason,” he explained, sitting at a table near Lou’s dartboard. “I was like, ‘Man, maybe I should just take a risk and just do this.’ So, I did.”

Since the 1980s, Cleveland’s Little Italy has evolved with Old World sensibilities mixing with hip steakhouses and coffee shops.

Lou’s Tavern, which sat mostly dormant for decades on Coltman Road, is a bridge between the two. With Sparent’s energy and newly refurbished menu, Lou’s now has its own split identity, cut between a living local museum and a small-town bar with cheap beer, blues bands and late-night pizza.

An identity that’s embodied by Sparent and his grandmother, Phyllis Sparent, whose recipes grace the white board hung above Lou’s vintage brass cash register. The two cook all of Lou’s dishes—pasta fagioli, tripe, cavatelli—in a homestyle kitchen in Sparent’s back house.

Jack is trying to advertise Lou’s in earnest despite it being off Little Italy’s main strip. | Photographed by Mark Oprea

Phyllis, 88, is delighted about the development. Her grandfather, Lorenzo Battista, emigrated from Sicily in the 1860s. By the 1920s, Battista’s son-in-law, Louis Leopardo, reimagined the street-side general store as a neighborhood bar—even during Prohibition. Whether open or not, it’s been known at Lou’s Tavern ever since.

Sitting next to her grandson in the dining area, Phyllis said she has faith Jack can usher in Lou’s new era with help from her recipes and a little advertising on Lou’s Instagram page. And, of course, the occasional hand from John Sparent, Jack’s father who long ran Lou’s as a sometimes-open music bar.

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“He’s a lot like his dad,” Phyllis said. “He’s got a good personality. He’s outgoing, which is important. He’s got a few things to pick up on, but he’s doing very well.”

Jack smiled. “I can’t do the pasta fagioli yet,” he said.

“Oh, that’s easy,” Phyllis said. “Well, to me. I’ve been doing it all my life.”

“It’s not,” Jack said. “I just can’t get the sauce down. I just can’t.”

What Sparent seems to do well since he kickstarted Lou’s revival is promote its old charm, especially in an age of nostalgia farming and overused throwback club concepts. Meatballs are made by hand, as is the Sicilian-style pizza. A 1960s Wurlitzer jukebox plays tunes in the corner. A clawfoot tub sits in the ladies’ room. “I don’t think anyone’s showered here yet,” Jack said.

Jack Sparent behind Lou’s bar and its white-board menu. | Photographed by Mark Oprea

Pamela Dorazio, head of the nearby Italian American Museum of Cleveland on Mayfield, picked Lou’s as one of five stops on her most recent Little Italy History Shuffle.

“I think you have to strike a balance between the new and the old and make sure that the new doesn’t overtake the old so much that the neighborhood loses its character,” Dorazio said.