Before Subhas Kim Kandasamy left Singapore for boarding school in London, his mother gave him the following advice: “You’re going to be drinking, and you’re going to be gambling. Just make sure that if you do those things, at least be chic about it.”
Little did she know just how much her son would take it to heart. On a Monday evening in late July, Kandasamy presided over two different mahjong tables at Maxime’s, the Robin Birley founded private members’ club on the Upper East Side, gently instructing a well-dressed cohort about dragon tiles as white-jacketed waiters liberally poured wine and handed out cocktails.
Kandasamy is a hot commodity in New York: in September 2024, the Singaporean founded Mahjong Palace, a social gaming club that gives mahjong and Cantonese poker lessons. Ten months later, he amassed quite the clientele for game nights: Maxime’s for one, as well as art galleries like Charles Moffett. Mahjong Palace has also popped up this summer at trendy Tribeca restaurant Macao Trading Co.
Once associated with gentlemen’s clubs or old lady afternoons, game nights have recently caught on with a younger, cooler subset within New York City. Fair Warning Auction House threw an invite-only backgammon tournament at members-only haunt Coco’s this past May where art world VIPs rolled dice while drinking Ruinart. Chinatown’s Wing on Wo Co.—the neighborhood’s oldest operating store—held a mahjong tournament to kick off its centennial celebration in July. And over in the West Village, San Vicente offers both backgammon and Uno evenings for its celebrity members.
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Fashion designer Suzie Kondi agrees that it is the summer of games: “I’ve asked my 84-year-old mother-in-law to teach me how to play mahjong. I might even get to join her weekly game if I’m lucky enough,” she says. (Although her game of choice is “backgammon. Always backgammon.”)
“It was seemingly the only summer event that wasn’t a sales pitch,” writer and man about town Isiah Magsino says of all the warm-weather game nights geared toward a high-income clientele. Though the trend seems to continue well into fall: a permanent backgammon café, 7 Spring Street, recently opened in NoLita where patrons can move checkers while sipping an espresso.
Why are we all rolling the dice on, well, rolling the dice? Part of it speaks to wider societal trends: Americans are drinking way less than they used to, and increasingly looking for social activities that embrace more moderate drinking rather than the binge drinking associated with nightclubs and bars. Kandasamy also has his own theory: it’s an easy, low-stakes way to meet new people without the involvement of an algorithm. “There’s a huge backlash against using apps to meet people. All my single friends say that the apps nowadays—everyone s so tired of them because you meet weirdos on them. All the people that your parents warned you about,” he says.
But perhaps the answer is way simpler than that: amid politically tumultuous times, where dinner party conversation can quickly turn toxic, games are just… fun. “Games provide levity and make conversations so much more interesting,” event planner Rebecca Gardener tells Vogue, noting she can often be found breaking out Rummikub after dinner. (Although maybe brush up on the rules before accepting Gardener’s invitation: “I love it because I’m so damn good at it,” she says, laughing.) One time, she even put a game of MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) on the back of menu cards for guests to scratch off.
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And whatever the reason, the fashion world is taking note. Emilia Wickstead recently designed a checkers board for Grand Cayman hotel Palm Heights, whereas Trish Wescoat Pound of TWP hosted bi-weekly backgammon tournaments with Remington Wells and the New York City Backgammon Club in the backyard of her Sag Harbor store this August. She tells Vogue that she did it as a “brand” event. But she also just because it’s a good time. “Many of us at the company are avid players,” she says, noting that she often plays with her daughter Jillian at the beach. And this fashion week, brand Dansom Madder will show their clothes on New York chess players rather than professional models. Their after-party location, if you were wondering? The Chess Forum. Sometimes, it really is all fun and games.
