What will be the next bar-restaurant to take the 12 St. Mark's Place challenge?

The retail space at 12 St. Mark's Place has been a merry-go-round of bars and restaurants the last 15 years or so ... Most recently, it was home to Hirai Mong Fusion Restaurant, which the Marshal seized back in May ... it was Gama, the Korean bar and restaurant, which closed in December 2009 after a three-year run...

Prior to this, it was San Marcos, the Mexican eatery that served huge margaritas, Siren, a really lame club, and @Cafe, an Internet bar. In 1994, St. Mark's Bookshop moved around the corner to its currents home. (The historic building was first home of The German-American Shooting Society Clubhouse in the 1880s.)

Anyway! The ground-floor space is for rent for a bar/restaruant. And, according to the NYCRS site, it's the "first time available on the open market."

It's a huge space — 2,300 square feet with a 200-square-foot sidewalk cafe and 500-square-foot basement. And the price to be on "the Busiest Block In The East Village" ...? $25,000 per month, plus $300,000 key money.

Can anything but a chain afford that kind of rent?

Previously on EV Grieve:
Looking at 12 St. Mark's Place

PS

How 12 St. Mark's Place looked in 1893, via Daytonian in Manhattan, who has more on the history on the address.