One of the hottest trends in Westport right now is actually quite old: classic games like mahjong and canasta. These games are, of course, booming all across the country: this summer, I went on a mahjong retreat at Canyon Ranch Resort in Lenox, Mass., where attendees from places as far-flung as Dallas and Atlanta spent three days playing on beautiful tile sets strewn around the property by Gold Coast Mahjong partner Claire Mohamed. But we didn’t travel to Canyon Ranch just to play—this was an educational experience. Beginners were learning for the first time, and experienced players were getting expert tips from the ladies at Gold Coast Mahjong, a (coincidentally) Darien-based business that specializes in high-end experiences relating to the 100+ year-old American variation of the game.
As I began investigating, I learned that the real story of these games’ rise in popularity is not just that we are learning, but how we are learning. Sure, you could Google the rules, or tune into a YouTube video that breaks down how to play with strategy tips. But there is an incredible amount of demand for in-person experiences that teach gameplay and offer structured socialization (and, it must be said, do so in a social-media-friendly way). Gold Coast Mahjong, which was founded in June 2025 by Emily Brown and Jamie Dalton, noticed this almost as soon as they launched. “People are craving connection,” says Emily. “With mahjong, you are all coming around the table for a common goal. The game takes away the social anxiety of not having a place to belong.” Here in Westport, The Haus of Mahj was founded by friends Dana Bernstein and Jessica Prince Erlich, also in June of 2025. The demand for what they offer—lessons, yes, but also events—has skyrocketed in the year and a half since they launched. “We’re not the first teachers in Fairfield County—there have been people teaching here for a long time,” says Dana. “But I think what we really brought was our events and the community around it. That’s what we wanted to create.” They’ve hosted instructional events with national brands like Hotel Lobby Candle and Loews Regency New York, and put on their own events, like this summer’s Camp Mahj at the Weston Field Club. “It’s the idea of doing a retreat, but in a few hours,” explains Jessica. “Not just playing, but making the day special.” Those differences are what keep them engaged with the people they work with: these aren’t just one-off lessons. “Yes, there are still people to teach, but so many people have their own sets, and tables, and know how to play,” says Dana. “Now, they want more curated experiences, which is what we’re trying to provide.”
It’s not just mahjong, either: canasta is lined up to become the next game from the greatest generation to make a comeback. Native Westporter Bess Rotowsky founded The Card Room for this very reason. During the pandemic, she, along with her husband and her parents, started playing the card game (which she’d learned from her grandparents) every night. “It was amazing, because we got off our phones, and we all felt connected,” she says. When the world opened back up, and as mahjong began to rise in popularity, she started teaching friends canasta. She saw that pretty, photo-shoot-worthy mahjong sets were partially behind the game’s resurgence, and thought why not offer cute canasta cards and racks too? "A big part of the inspiration was watching mahjong get this modern, design-forward refresh and wondering why canasta couldn’t have the same moment," she says. "At the same time, I felt like a lot of the newer game brands had a very specific aesthetic, whereas my goal was to create designs that could appeal to many different styles: minimal, modern, traditional, colorful, playful, bold." Thanks to an entrepreneurial spirit—Bess’s background includes starting and eventually selling Bessties bakery and a side hustle selling acrylic diaper caddies— she decided to launch a business herself. Bess’ own style tends more toward the chic and minimal, so the first collection of The Card Room cards and racks featured tortoise-shell prints and clean lines—and it sold out three weeks after she launched earlier this year. Since then, she’s added more styles and designs, and teamed up with canasta influencers to offer co-branded collections. She’s also, to her own surprise, started teaching canasta and hosting in-person events. “What started as a product idea has really become about bringing people together," she says. "The more the brand has grown, the more I’ve realized people aren’t just looking for beautiful cards and accessories, they’re looking for a way into the game and a community to play with. The events and lessons have become such a natural extension of that. It’s still a product-based business at its core, but now we’re creating the experience around it, too.”
So why is everyone opting to learn IRL? I posed the question to the women behind all these brands, and a through-line emerged: we are all looking for connection. One beautiful thing about these classic games is they keep us engaged with one another, rather than glued to our phones, doomscrolling. Making it into an event just adds to that experiential component. “It’s soft socialization, which I think is bigger now than ever,” says Dana. “People are looking for things to do beyond eating out, or going to a book club, or centered around alcohol.” Bess agrees, adding that the strategy challenge of the games is the kind of distraction that’s good. “In a world where we’re always thinking about what we have to do next, especially as women and moms, it’s nice to take your mind out of that for a minute,” she says. “What I like about games like mahjong and canasta is that they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are so few things in our lives like that. But when we play, we have fun, we accomplish something, we catch up with friends, and then we can go back to our lives. It feels really good.” Emily points out that part of what they love about hosting events and retreats at Gold Coast Mahjong is the ability to curate an experience for someone. “We pull research on people that are coming. How experienced are they? What do they like to eat? We want to build those connections.” It might sound obvious, but a big part of the appeal of events and retreats is the chance to make friends. And, these experts agreed, it doesn’t hurt that mahjong has gotten so photogenic, thanks to gorgeous tile sets, mats, and accessories from brands like Oh My Mahjong, which you can find locally at The Post. After all, that’s why Bess launched The Card Room to begin with.
Canyon Ranch has more mahjong ahead, too: their new property in Austin is hosting a mahjong tournament this month, and Gold Coast Mahjong will be there for a retreat January 4-7. Bess says she plans to offer canasta retreats too. The beauty is that once you’ve learned one of these games, you really can play them as a lifelong hobby. And, maybe, teach your grandchildren to play one day, too.
“With mahjong, you are all coming around the table for a common goal," says Emily Brown.
“In a world where we’re always thinking about what we have to do next, especially as women and moms, it’s nice to take your mind out of that for a minute,” says Bess Rotowsky.