Mocha Hut, the locally-owned coffee shop at 1301 U Street NW, permanently closed yesterday. Our love for their breakfasts was apparently not enough.

A notice posted on the door this morning reads simply, “Mocha Hut is closed. We sincerely thank you for all of our support,” and is ironically posted only a few feet away from a plea for votes in the Washington City Paper’s Best of D.C. awards.

According to office staff at the Ellington apartment building, which shares their address, Mocha Hut’s owners had planned to stay open until the end of the month, and unexpectedly decided to close early. Another owner plans to take over the space in April. The new owners reportedly plan to keep the business as a coffee shop, though we don’t yet know what changes they might make to the space or the menu.

No one answered the phone at Mocha Hut this morning.

UPDATE: The Washington Business Journal says the new business will be called U Street Cafe, operated by brothers Brian and Jim Sullivan.