UPDATE: CHS spoke with Michael Yuasa, the managing partner for Pike Street Fish Fry, about Tuesday night’s setback in NYC and found him upbeat about the situation.

“We have a lot of options,” Yuasa said. Yuasa said he and Via Tribunali partner Mike McConnell can bring their request for liquor licenses back to the community board next month or appeal to the state. But the bottom line is they plan to open on the Lower East Side.

“I said to Mike, I want to start spending time in New York. Let’s put a Fish Fry here,” Yuasa, who is in New York and attended Tuesday night’s community board meeting, told us by phone about the genesis of the effort. “Mike said let’s open Tribunali too.”

While he’s willing to go forward without serving wine and beer, Yuasa said he believes the benefits he and McConnell can bring to Ludlow Street will eventually sway the community. “We’re very community involved. As far as the bars go, they’re not working together. We’re taking a community approach to the plan. We can be a positive influence,” Yuasa said. He told CHS that they now have the support of the woman who has lived in the building where the restaurants are planned and led the effort to collect signatures against their liquor license requests. “She’s lived in the building for 37 years,” Yuasa said. “The tenants rights here are a different world. They have a lot of say.” Yuasa said a dedication to helping better organize the nightlife community in the area helped sway the woman to provide them with a letter of support, even if a little late. Yuasa said that kind of support will be valuable if he decides to go in front of the board again in September.

In the meantime, Yuasa said he and McConnell have no plans for expansion outside of Seattle and Ludlow Street. “It’s very similar to Capitol Hill,” Yuasa said. “It’s central to the art community and by far my favorite part of the city.”

CHS has also been following the legal process related to McConnell’s plea of not guilty to charges of DUI, hit and run and assault after his March 31 arrest. McConnell currently faces a jury trial later this fall.

Original Report: The bid by two members of Pike/Pine’s restaurant scene to open new outlets on New York’s popular Ludlow Street hit a major snag Tuesday night as a community board rejected their request for liquor licenses to be part of the popular Lower East Side nightlife scene:

Representatives from the Seattle-based fish-and-chips restaurants Pike Street Fish Fry and Neapolitan pizzeria Via Tribunali came before the board seeking beer/wine licenses for their proposed locations at 124 and 122 Ludlow St.

But since the addresses fall in a “resolution area” — a street where the board has placed a freeze on granting new liquor licenses based on the large amount of existing licenses — the operators were informed that their preferred real estate wasn’t fit for their proposal.

The local police precinct “consider[s] that the worst block in the district” for crowding and noise, said committee member Mary Spink, noting that the crush of bars and restaurants has “overwhelmed” the street.

Meanwhile, Community Board 3 approved a liquor license for a new Dans le Noir, “the Paris-based restaurant chain that hires blind waiters to serve food to diners under the cover of total darkness,” and a “New Mexican” cantina taking over another location.

We’ll check in with reps from Fish Fry and Via Tribunali to see what their NYC plans are now. In the meantime, you can score free fries at Seattle’s Pike St. Fish Fry again this Friday night.