Cause is located on Ninth Street in Shaw, just south of U Street.

Cause, the Shaw “philanthropub” that aimed to give away all of its profits to charity, is closed, according to a message on the restaurant’s Web site. The problem, unsurprisingly, was an inability to make profits to give away.

Here’s a message posted on their Web site:

It is with deep sadness that we report that CAUSE is closed for business. What started as an idea for a fun new way to help others has unfortunately not been able to achieve its purpose. Despite a great response from people around the country, CAUSE has not been able to achieve regular profitability, and thus not been able to generate the donations that were the reason for starting the restaurant. It is certainly a huge disappointment to us, as we truly believe in the idea but a number of factors have kept us from reaching our goals. We knew going in that it was a very difficult industry, but we hoped that the mission behind CAUSE would help carry us to success. We would like to thank our great team and the entire community that has been very supportive in this endeavor.

Cause closed temporarily in August to deal with repair work. The restaurant launched an Indiegogo campaign seeking to raise $11,000 to buy a new air conditioning system, but raised just $1,000.

Raj Ratwani, co-owner of the restaurant, says the closure is effective immediately.