Posh tech cafe The Summit will close its doors on January 28. Decried by some as a "masturbatory business fantasy," the creatively-minded Valencia Street space served coffee and pastries to "free thinkers, craftsmen, artisans, entrepreneurs, and the public." Only Blue Bottle, Ritual, or Four Barrel trained baristas were asked to apply for a gig at the "democratically-priced" cafe.

The Summit broke the bittersweet news on their site thusly:

After a year and half, THE SUMMIT SF will close it’s operations at 780 Valencia to re-open at a soon to be determined location. During this time, we’ve received press and accolades from Food and Wine to Business Week, created a community of entrepreneurs/digital thinkers/and creative like minds, helped launch many start-ups, hosted several culinary pop-ups, produced buzz worthy art shows, and threw some legendary parties. We could not have achieved such accomplishments without our amazing community of managers, staff, and of course, our patrons. We are proud of our time at 780 Valencia, and excited to take The Summit to the next level: a social enterprise spreading entrepreneurship and innovation around the world.

But why did they make the decision to close down? Mission Local, who talked to Paul Bragiel, founder of I/O Ventures (who owns The Summit the building housing the cafe), explains:

“We at I/O own the building. The Summit was simply our coffee shop vendor. They weren’t able to pay the market rate for rent, so we’re going to have a new vendor in going forward. The incubator is definitely still open and will be having the next group of companies in the new year. ”

Luckily, for those of you who frequent The Summit, a horde of cafes remain open along Valencia. That might have been the problem in the first place. Perhaps a cafe in the area that stays open past midnight could stand out from the over-saturated market? Just a thought.