Sad news for Hayes Valley! Well loved six-year-old cafe/bar Two Sisters Bar & Books is calling it quits sometime in the near future, and as Tablehopper tells us, it's because owners Mikha Diaz and Alana O'Neal, who's also the chef, are moving on to open a new business in downtown Berkeley. That will be called Les Arceaux, and they're currently building out the space on Shattuck Avenue "just north of the Downtown Berkeley BART station."

Apparently they're already in the process of transferring the liquor license from the Hayes Valley space to new owners, and they say they'll be announcing a closing date once they think that transfer is about 30 days out.*

Also, Diaz is working with partners Kathryn Kulczyk and Branden Cardelli on a cocktail bar that they plan to open in the East Bay sometime in 2018, she tells Tablehopper.

In related news, longtime Two Sisters bartender Michael Cecconi is launching his own retail line of bottled cocktails, for which he's now seeking a federal permit, hopefully to begin sales next year.

Diaz opened Two Sisters in 2011 alongside sister Mary Elliott after being inspired, while in graduate school together in New York, and traveling together through Europe. They both had a habit of bringing books along to bars, which their friends found strange, as Diaz explained to The Culture Trip, and they wanted to open a place where they could marry these pastimes. As they described it on the original website, Two Sisters is like "an incredible bookstore in Krakow; a quintessential coffeehouse in Vienna; a neighborhood bar in Paris; the young, urban, do-it-yourself restaurant scene in Brooklyn; and our Northern California roots" combined.

So, you may only have a matter of weeks to steal some time with a friend or take a first date to Two Sisters  since it is an ideal venue for either  and you'd better pencil that in.

Two Sisters Bar & Books - 579 Hayes Street

* This post has been corrected to show that the liquor license isn't being transferred out of the city. It is actually transferring to Coco Frio in the Mission.