Mah-jongg and champagne lounge coming to Naperville

A new mah-jongg and champagne lounge is coming to Naperville’s 5th Avenue Station later this year.

Started by Naperville resident Angela Holloway, Clink Mahjong Social is building a permanent space for new and seasoned mah-jongg players, believed to be the first brick and mortar store of its kind in the city.

“There really isn’t anything in Naperville … and there are a lot of women in Naperville who play,” Holloway said. “There are a lot of people who both have full-time jobs that want to play at night and also who are not working and who are looking just for that ease of convenience of a place where they know they can always come and sit down and have a seat at a table.”

Holloway first became interested in mah-jongg when she watched the film “Crazy Rich Asians” right before living in Singapore for a year in 2021 through 2022.

“(My husband) actually bought me a set of Chinese mah-jongg tiles, and I never ended up learning how to play when I lived there,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I really want to learn. I really want to learn.’ But life gets busy and it (fell) to the back burner.”

It wasn’t until she moved to Naperville and mentioned mah-jongg to one of her neighbors that she started to learn how to play.

“She ended up getting our entire neighborhood together and teaching everybody, so now all the women kind of within like a two, three block radius of me know how to play and we meet on Mondays for ‘Mah-jongg Mondays,’” Holloway said.

Although Holloway only started playing mah-jongg last January, she considers herself a gamer through and through. Growing up in Palatine, her childhood was filled with nights huddled around a table with her family, playing everything from Monopoly and Scrabble to card games like gin and war.

She is passing that tradition on to her own family, which includes her husband and three young kids.

“I don’t know if I have a favorite (game). I think it’s more of the idea of being able to sit around the table with people … and just having non-screen, nonstress, enjoyable time,” Holloway said. “My kids I notice even get stuck in their screens and trying to get everybody out of that is such a novelty.”

Now, she hopes to bring that passion for creating dedicated, stress-free, screen-free time to her first business venture.

Holloway is targeting a December opening. Her space located on the fourth floor of 5th Avenue Station will have seven or eight tables set up for playing. Clink Mahjong Social is focused on the American version of mah-jongg, since it is the only version of the game Holloway knows how to play, though she noted that she is open to expanding to the Chinese or Japanese versions of mah-jongg.

The business will also offer a bar with a variety of beverages for patrons to enjoy while they play. There will be champagne and wine, but also tea and other non-alcoholic beverages. Those who can’t get enough mah-jongg can peruse the business’ retail offerings as well, which will include mah-jongg holiday pajamas and ornaments, mah-jongg-related books and dice and trinket dishes.

Patrons will be able to reserve a table for $20 to play in two hour slots. Beginners can opt for a guided play option, which will be $35 for two hours.

“There’ll be lessons. We’ll have a variety of types of lessons. We’ll have a Mah-jongg 101 lesson and a Mah-jongg 102 lesson,” Holloway said, with lessons costing $75. “And then hopefully down the road, some more strategy-based lessons, and I’m gonna start lessons sometime in October. Those will just be at pop-up locations that I haven’t yet determined, but they’ll be in the Naperville area.”

The space will be about 1,500 square feet and will have a “sophisticated glam” look inside, with dark green and bright magenta and fuchsia, Holloway said.

Holloway is considering opening a second location later down the road for a shop that would be dedicated to a wider swath of games. But for now, she is excited to start just with mah-jongg, a game that is “near and dear to so many people’s hearts right now,” she said.

cstein@chicagotribune.com