Put your phone face-down: the hottest thing on some bar menus right now isn't a cocktail, it's a game board. From Los Angeles to Bangkok to London, venues are leaning hard into analog entertainment, and the trend has real numbers behind it — Eventbrite's 2026 Social Study found puzzle competitions up 151 percent, with a majority of people saying they actually prefer socialising that doesn't revolve entirely around talking.
The poster child is RummiKlub, a Rummikub social club founded in LA by Marnie Wekselblatt and Laura Galvan, who started bringing the Romanian-born 1940s tile game into bars and hotels in 2025. Their pitch is simple: enough strategy to be interesting, relaxed enough that you can hold a conversation and nurse a margarita at the same time. They've popped up everywhere from the Santa Monica Proper Hotel to private clubs, with brand tie-ins including Astral Tequila and Maison Perrier.
Luxury hotels have caught on too. In Bangkok, 137 Pillars House has made backgammon central to its Jack Bain's Bar, a nod to the Scottish family that once owned the property — general manager Arnaud Beril says the slow-paced games bring a conviviality that suits a heritage property. And at Simpson's in The Strand in London, recently reopened and once known as England's 'Home of Chess', you can play at the first-floor Romano's restaurant daily from 3pm to 6pm, seated in the same high-backed booths where 19th-century gentlemen paid a guinea a year for coffee and competition. Pair it with The Gambit, a vermouth-sherry-grapefruit cocktail built for the occasion.
Meanwhile, mahjong is having a genuine moment. The Peninsula London launched Mahjong Mondays at its Tea Lounge in September, where bookings come with hand-pulled noodles and a martini made with apricot gin and yellow baijiu. The US revival has been staggering — Yelp searches for mahjong clubs jumped 4,467 percent in 2025 — and the enthusiasm is clearly spreading to Britain. Cathay Pacific has even commissioned mahjong sets from a Hong Kong woodwork atelier, made from recycled wood with jade-green tiles and aviation details, and can arrange private tutors for first-timers.
None of this is entirely new — chess and backgammon were tavern fixtures in 16th-century Europe, and Korea built the board game cafe blueprint decades ago. What's different is the framing: venues now treat games as an experience worth building a whole evening around, not just a distraction. For travellers, that's a genuine bonus. It's a screen-free way to meet locals or travel companions, it gives jet-lagged evenings structure, and it often comes with a history lesson thrown in. Whether you fancy a chess session in a Victorian dining room or a tile-clattering night in a Cantonese restaurant, there's likely a bar near your next hotel table set and waiting.
