Music has always been the main character at the historic WIT Building at 276 Westminster Street in Providence. First, as part of performances at the Providence Black Repertory Company, which operated there from 1996 to 2009, then later at the creative performance spaces Roots Cafe until 2013, and Aurora from 2013 to 2017. The building sat vacant since then, until new owners, Robert Troutman and Allison Johnson, came along to open Murmur HiFi Lounge.
Their goal? To turn the space into Providence’s first Japanese-inspired jazz kissaten, which is a high fidelity, analogue listening lounge derived from traditional tea-drinking/coffee shops from the 1920s where the music experience took priority. The partners were no strangers to entertaining in their own home where they showed off their vinyl collection on hi-fidelity equipment, the sound seamlessly integrated into a mid-century modern aesthetic.
The idea of opening a kissaten started after Troutman fulfilled a lifelong dream of traveling to Japan in the early 2000s. “I went for a month and a half by myself and I really got immersed in the music culture, vinyl culture, hi-fi culture, which they have perfected since the 1920s,” he says. He was also exposed to international cultures through his job as a creative director at Puma, which enabled him to spend six years traveling to different cities around the world doing photo shoots. He was drawn to listening lounge experiences in places like Berlin, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Tokyo.
“I thought Providence needs this. Why does this not exist here?” Troutman says. “Providence is a music city. It’s known for the arts and food, but music has always been the backbone with Lupo’s, The Met Cafe, The Living Room and the Safari Lounge, so it became a ‘why not us?’ moment.”…