ORDER Order
Out of Chaos
Nancy Dyleski and Melanie Couch built Mountain Mahj Collective around racks, mats, tiles and a room full of people willing to put their phones down.
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Spruce Interiors, there is rosé. The game moves easily between those two settings. A high schooler can share the table with a player in their eighties. “Everybody plays together. It’s multi-generational.” “ Almost none of the regulars knew one another before Mountain Mahj Collective put them at the same table. We asked whether any of those strangers had become friends. “All of them.” Now the regulars keep track of one another. They notice who has been away and who has returned. “They tell us their travel plans now.”
our racks face the center of a mat as colorful tiles stand in rows against them. Each player begins with thirteen except for the dealer, who gets fourteen and discards first. The phones stay down, without effort. Mountain Mahj Collective is the name Melanie Couch and Nancy Dyleski use for the nights they host. Both step in when a player needs guidance, keeping the format centered on guided play. The basic expectation is that players know the fun- damentals and have played once or twice before arriving. A good turnout is somewhere between a dozen and twenty people, with the rest of the town’s calendar affecting the number. At Oak Steakhouse, the group has a designated bartender. Light bites are served with the moun- tains visible through the window. On the patio at
Above: From left, Nancy Dyleski and Melanie Couch, the duo behind Spruce Interiors and Mountain Mahj Collective.
Opposite: A good night brings a dozen to twenty players to the table.
FALL 2026
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