Home Tour: Inside the mysterious 2,800-square-foot merchant’s loft above Dilworth Tasting Room

Before Dilworth Tasting Room settled into its home in a historic 1947 building at the corner of E. Tremont and Cleveland avenues, Eric Sprouse ran legendary pool hall Dilworth Billiards in the space for 35 years.

Sprouse bought the two-story building in 1983 and made the second floor his residence. When he closed the pool hall in 2015 for retirement, he set out on an exceedingly thoughtful search for a new tenant on the main floor.

Sprouse says he turned away 10-15 potential lessees in the search for the perfect successor that would not only be a good business for the neighborhood but a good neighbor for him as well. Jaffer Kovic’s Dilworth Tasting Room was exactly the fit he was looking for – the kind of place with staying power where, like at the old pool hall, strangers become regulars.