Meet Noreen Kane | Founder, The Green Mahjong Dragons

We had the good fortune of connecting with Noreen Kane and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Noreen, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
You know the saying- “Choose a job you love and you’ll never work another day in your life”?

This is the idea behind what we’ve created, The Green Mahjong Dragons. We love playing mahjong, we want all our friends to play mahjong, we love throwing parties, we love hosting parties. We love to have fun, use our minds, and be social.

We are three mom friends with young children, all who go to the same school. We are all very involved with sports, PTO, and the community. We all volunteer our time doing “all the things”. After throwing a successful mahjong party with 50 friends at the beginning of the year- we all thought, let’s do something with this! …and The Green Mahjong Dragons was born!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
The Green Mahjong Dragons specializes in teaching the game of mahjong and hosting events. Mahjong is a tile-based game played by four people with 144 rectangular tiles (plus 8 jokers). Players match or sequence sets of tiles and the first person to match a hand of 14, called a mahjong, wins. Unlike other “mahjong companies” in the area, we don’t focus on merch, instead- we focus on teaching the tradition and hosting events that foster friendships and competition. At these events, instead of competing for money, players win prizes. At our events, we like to highlight other small businesses in the area and use their companies for prizes. Where else can you target 80-100 local women in one night?

My business partners and I are all moms with young children. We didn’t start this business to make a bunch of money. Obviously making a little play money is nice, but we are mostly doing this because we love playing mahjong, we love being social, and we love getting our friends together to play. We are building a community. Nothing makes us more happy than teaching newbies the game of mahjong and then seeing them playing out and about having fun!

We are a young company and the biggest challenge we are facing so far is trying to juggle all the other things we have going on in our busy lives to accommodate all the people who want to learn and play!
People always ask us- what will you do once you teach everyone here how to play? Our answer- play with them!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My family and I moved to Southlake (in the middle of the pandemic) from the northeast in May 2020- so we are fairly new to the area. But in the 3 short years we’ve been Texans, we’ve had a lot of visitors! We always take our friends for BBQ- we love the atmosphere of Hard 8 but love the BBQ of Meat You Anywhere. It’s Texas after all!

I love taking guests to Stella or MiDia in Southlake Town Square and then walking around the fountain and having ice cream at Milwaukee Joes. Perhaps grab a cocktail at Moxies after dinner.

I always reserve a day to check out Fort Worth and see the cattle drive at the stockyards, go to dinner in Mule Alley then a fun rodeo at Cowtown Coliseum.

On another day, I love to take guests to Dallas and give them a “JFK Tour” near Dealey Plaza, have brunch in Bishop Arts (my favorite spot is Paradiso), then go for a drink in Deep Ellum and walk them around to take pictures next to all the fun and colorful murals.

If we have some time, I also love taking guests to the Ford Center and having dinner at one of the great restaurants around the area and letting the kids throw a football around the football field!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The Green Mahjong Dragons wouldn’t be possible without our amazing Mahjong Sensei (teacher) Thu Keojampa and the brilliant, creative touch of our brand and marketing mind, Lauren. Nelson. The three of us make up what everyone knows as The Green Mahjong Dragons.

Although we are a small business who do lesson parties, events and merch- The “Green Mahjong Dragon” is essentially a sorority of sorts- anyone who plays mahjong in the Southlake community is a “Green Mahjong Dragon”- we are all DRAGONS after all in Southlake! We are thrilled that the game of mahjong is being played all over and its our mission to protect the mahjong tradition, foster friendships and encourage competition. Follow the fun on our IG @greenmahjongdragons.

Website: WWW..GREENMAHJONGDRAGONS.COM

Instagram: @GREENMAHJONGDRAGONS

Facebook: GREEN MAHJONG DRAGONS