Ray Campise (right) started helping Jordan Sparrow (left) with produce and dry goods right after he came to town in 2016. Butchers Tom Sparrow and Cristina Pappas are family: he’s Jordan’s uncle, and she’s Campise’s fiancée. | Photo by J. Adrian Wylie
Ray Campise, finding himself bored in his hometown of Troy, moved to Ann Arbor in 2016, mainly because his mother had shared her own fond memories of the city from her student days at U-M.
“I just randomly rented a room when I had no money,” he recounts, and he put in an application at the meat counter of Sparrow Market.
It got thrown away, he learned much later, but fortunately he followed up in person. Longtime owner Bob Sparrow, who grew the business from a butcher shop to a neighborhood grocery in Kerrytown Market & Shops, hired him on the spot to help with produce and dry goods alongside his son, Jordan.
“They kind of all took me in like I’m family, and I feel part of the family,” Campise says. On May 1, he’ll officially become the market’s new owner, aiming to carry on the Sparrow name and legacy of old-fashioned personalized service.
“We just want to continue to bring quality and community together,” he says. “And that’s what I feel like has been happening for the last forty-one years.”
Bob, now retired, sold the business in 2020 to Jordan, who in turn approached Campise last year about taking it over. Bank of Ann Arbor was instrumental in financing the deal. “Everybody’s on board and really happy for both me and Jordan,” Campise says. “There’s nothing wrong with the joint. He just honestly wants to have a little bit more freedom.”
Related: March of the Sparrows
Jordan will stay part-time for several months to ease the transition, and Bob’s brother Tom will continue to head the meat department, which last year began a mail-order business serving all fifty states.
“We’ve got people in Texas who order on a weekly basis, and they’re in the beef capital of the country!” Campise says.
The butcher shop lists over 170 products, and the market offers a wide range of prepared foods, produce, and groceries, many produced in Michigan. Business thrived during the pandemic, Campise reports, in part because “our turnaround for curbside was like twenty times quicker than the big-box stores.”
The staff of thirty-five includes Cristina Pappas, “probably the quickest butcher you’ve ever seen in your life,” according to Campise, who met her at work five years ago and proposed marriage last fall. They’re planning a 2026 wedding.
Sparrow Market, 407 N. Fifth Ave. (Kerrytown Market & Shops). (734) 761–8175. Mon.–Fri. 8 a.m.–7 p.m., Sat. 7 a.m.–6 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.–6 p.m. sparrowmeats.com
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