The sound comes first.
A sharp percussive click of ivory against ivory echoes as a tile lands face down on a mat. Then another. And another.
In mahjong, that rattle gave the game its name: the word means sparrow, and the chattering of the tiles evokes the chirps of birds.
That sound is what Kristen Trapnell wants Fort Worth to hear.
Trapnell and her mother, Carolyn Penny, are opening the Bamboo Room, a mahjong lounge at 6115 Camp Bowie Blvd., Suite 144, anticipated to open in late July or early August. The space will be a game parlor, retail shop and community anchor for a game taking root citywide.
“It’s everywhere,” Trapnell said.
Mahjong is a strategy game played with tiles, typically by four people. Each player draws and discards tiles, working toward a winning hand that matches one of more than 70 combinations listed on an annual card issued by the National Mah Jongg League, the organization that standardized the American version of the game in the 1930s.
The card changes every year, which Trapnell said keeps longtime players from ever feeling too comfortable.
“Just when you’re confident and you feel like you really know what you’re doing, the card changes,” Trapnell said.
The mother-daughter duo came to the idea through their own introduction to the game. Penny started playing in a weekly group more than 20 years ago, formed to support a family friend going through an illness. The group of six still meets, rotating through one another’s homes.
The weekly ritual was simply part of growing up for Trapnell.
“I always knew Mom’s at mahj on Wednesdays,” she said.
Trapnell picked up the game less than a year ago. Her mother taught her, and Trapnell almost immediately fell down a rabbit hole — watching YouTube and TikTok videos, scouring Instagram, and acquiring tile sets at a self-described excessive pace.
“I have probably 20 sets now,” Trapnell said.
The two formalized the idea for a lounge after a three-generation Christmas party where grandmothers, their daughters and college-age granddaughters all played together.
The younger women took to it fast, Trapnell recalled.
“They find it very trendy to do things that they call granny hobbies,” Penny said. “They are playing mahjong in college now.”
The game traces its origins to China, where it began as a card game before converting to tiles. An Abercrombie & Fitch buyer later brought mahjong sets back to the United States in the 1920s. The store became the first American retailer for the game.
The stateside version used today was standardized in the 1930s by a group of Jewish women, largely in New York, who formalized the rules and created the National Mah Jongg League card.
The Bamboo Room’s retail section will carry tile sets from boutique manufacturers, alongside racks, mats, jewelry, pajamas and handbags. The lounge will offer beginner classes, twice-a-day open play sessions, a competitive league, and private event reservations like birthday parties and bridal showers.
Carolyn Penny holds mahjong tiles during a demonstration at the future site of the Bamboo Room. (Nicole Williams Quezada | Fort Worth Report)
“We want people to feel welcome here,” Trapnell said. “You can make a mistake, and we don’t care. We just want you to come and make friends, enjoy the game that we love.”
Penny said her vision for the space, after a year of operation, is simple: she wants to recognize faces.
“I hope we have a regular group who keep coming back,” she said. “Just full of people who are really happy.”
Open play will be $30 per session drop-in. A $99 annual membership allows unlimited open play drop-in. Competitive league play runs in six-week sessions with prizes.
Nicole Williams Quezada is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.williams@fortworthreport.org.
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