The Dish
DINING DETAILS
Murmur HiFi Mixes Up Providence’ s Music Scene
Sound is superior in the space that also serves creative cocktails and a food menu to match. By Jamie Coelho
MUSIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE MAIN CHARACTER at the historic Wit Building at 276 Westminster St. in downtown Providence. First, as part of performances at the Providence Black Repertory Company, which operated there from 1996 to 2009, then later at the creative spaces Roots Cafe until 2013, and Aurora from 2013 to 2017. The building’ s been vacant until new owners, Robert Troutman and Allison The Johnson, came along to open Murmur HiFi Lounge.
Their goal? To create a listening bar experience inspired by a jazz kissaten, but with its own spin. Murmur HiFi Lounge is a high-fidelity, analog listening concept derived from traditional Japanese tea-drinking / coffee shops from the 1920s where the music experience took priority. The partners were no strangers to entertaining in their own West End home where they showed off their vinyl collection on high-fidelity equipment, the sound seamlessly integrated into a mid-century modern aesthetic.
The idea of opening an analog listening bar 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, where he spent 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.
Troutman and Johnson, who is an architect, decided to be the ones to bring a listening bar concept to the Creative Capital. But the food and drink menu at Murmur also had to measure up to the sound. They hired one of the best bartenders in town, Parker Luthman( formerly of Gift Horse and
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: Murmur HiFi Lounge has a vast vinyl collection; the Murmur freezer martini; the bar changes colors as the night progresses. BELOW: High-fidelity sound equipment.
Eddy, and founder of his own venture, Play It Cool), as beverage director and bar manager. Murmur’ s head chef, Chris Cronin, founded Little Moss in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and helped develop Murmur’ s Japanese-inspired food menu.
Murmur cocktails are reflective of the atmosphere. The team secured a Suntory Toki Highball machine from Japan, and Luthman was charged with creating the cocktail list.“ We met with Parker early on and gave him the reins for the cocktail program,” Troutman says.“ We said this is what the concept is, our own spin on a jazz kissaten, and the cocktails should be reflective of that.”
Cronin’ s food menu features shared small plates like shishito peppers, french fries with furikake salt and yuzu aioli, Murmur wings and karaage tenders made with chicken from Baffoni’ s Poultry Farm, served with house Buffalo or Bulldog sauce. There’ s also a jammy egg salad sandwich
124 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I OCTOBER 2026