turned to events like\u00a0loteria<\/a>, bingo and sing-alongs to draw in customers. Mahjong represents one more extension of that trend.\u00a0<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we host our events, we will usually do them at low business times for those businesses,\u201d said Ashley Bailey, who runs mahjong lessons as part of the group Mocha Mahj. \u201cThey’re willing to work with us because it also brings in business for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Attendees play mahjong during a guided open-play event at Latuli in Houston, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. The restaurant is among a growing number of Houston businesses hosting mahjong events.<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Mahjong is played in several variants, but at Houston restaurant events, people most commonly play American. Each player starts with a rack of tiles, and they attempt to make their hand match one of several end-goal options issued on a card from the National Mah Jongg League.<\/p>\n
Bailey said she thinks the game saw a resurgence during the pandemic, leading to more people playing in public. She founded Mocha Mahj with two friends last year, with the aim of making a welcoming space for everyone to learn. She often teaches at the bakery Red Dessert Dive, and lately, she said\u00a0she\u2019s seen players bring their own tiles to favorite restaurants, as well as restaurants hosting events to draw people in.<\/p>\n
In May, for instance, Mocha Mahj taught a mahjong class at Loro, an Asian smokehouse and bar in the Heights. The group brought the game pieces, and Loro provided food and drink: fritters, karaage, a Mandarin margarita.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
General manager Ashley Wilson said the event slotted in nicely with a spate of other recent offerings at Loro: live music, patio parties, a popsicle bar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were seeing a lot of other restaurants or bars that were hosting these little nights and whatnot, and people are getting super creative with it,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cSo we were like, \u2018Oh, I think this would be a really awesome way to bring in more people.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Attendees]()
![\"Attendees]()
<\/p>\n
Attendees play mahjong at a Latuli event.<\/p>\n
Attendees play mahjong at a Latuli event.<\/p>\n
She hasn\u2019t hosted another mahjong night yet \u2014 the World Cup and a planned collaboration kept her busy \u2014 but Wilson said she hopes to bring it back eventually.<\/p>\n
Italian restaurant Tony\u2019s, meanwhile, just hosted its first mahjong event this week, after business manager Lauri Mazzini saw the game grow in popularity. The fine-dining restaurant served prosecco and passed around food, and players snacked while they started their games.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt’s just a nice way to meet other people and to harness their skills,\u201d Mazzini said, \u201cand in a nice restaurant setting as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margaret Lee, who lives in the Braeswood area, agreed. She learned American mahjong over a year ago, and now she plays several times a week, often at open nights at a distillery or restaurants like\u00a0Torchy\u2019s Tacos.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Lacy]()
<\/p>\n
Lacy Price, a mahjong instructor, teaches Lauren Strieby, 47, and Kelsey Talbert, 43, during a guided open-play event at Latuli in Houston on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. The restaurant is among a growing number of Houston businesses hosting mahjong events.<\/p>\n
Raquel Natalicchio\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
The game has served as a good way to immerse herself and her family in an \u201cunplugged world,\u201d Lee said. And she thinks the boom in mahjong events is proof that other people want that too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like over the summer,\u201d she said, \u201cit really exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lacy Price, a mahjong instructor, teaches Kourtney Cyrus, 44, and Sterling Myers, 36, during a guided open-play event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-418071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}