Joe Isidori has two questions:

1. Where did the restaurant bread basket go?
2. Why do some restaurants make diners pay for bread?

Isidori, the chef-owner of the new (and wonderful) Arthur on Smith in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, also happens to have some refreshing answers.

As you mull over the menu, a wooden caddy is set before you. It’s happily crammed with hot, burly slices of eight-grain and sesame breads from the Bronx’s Il Forno Bakery. Alongside are whole-cucumber pickles, plus a saucer-size pat of butter drowned in honey and sea salt.

You know what to do: Slather the toast, crunch the pickle, repeat.

This yeasty welcoming gesture is but one of many at Arthur on Smith. For Isidori, a third-generation chef, noble hospitality is in the blood.

After cooking Michelin-starred food in Las Vegas, Isidori has embraced the Italian food of his childhood--“like riding a bike,” he says.

At lunch, egg salad is layered with tarragon, Dijon and more of those 24-hour pickles ($10). At dinner, bucatini with squid and bacon ($17) is the sublime weeknight answer to Marea’s legendary fusilli with octopus and bone marrow.

But no matter the meal or what you order--it always comes with bread.

Arthur on Smith, 276 Smith St. (between Sackett and Degraw sts.), Brooklyn; 718-360-2340 or arthuronsmith.com