Butter is an ingredient I have some affection for. I love to cook with it, to spread it on thick cut slices of toast, to watch it melt over summer's white corn. But at restaurants it can be tricky. It's often overlooked, served thoughtlessly cold so it just rips into the bread, tearing it to shreds. It's almost criminal. It should be served soft, room temp, so it's creamy and warm, like it's been sitting in the sun for a bit. That's the way I like it at least, and that's the way it's served at Arthur, a new restaurant on Smith Street where it's drizzled with honey and sea salt and served with a wooden basket filled hearty slices of warm bread from Il Forno in the Bronx. According to our waitress, who wore a bowler hat, like some distant relative of Charlie Chaplin, the butter is from Salem Farm, and is 99% fat. "Just like me," I thought as I happily buttered up my bread.

The restaurant, which for many years was Po on Smith Street, has been redesigned with walls covered in deconstructed pallets from various Home Depots. It feels very Barnyard-in-Brooklyn, with chalk boards listing hyper-local wines and beers, both served on tap (Channing Daughter, Gotham Project, Red Hook Winery, and Paumanok are all in attendance). A pair of big bay windows is thrown open to the street. In between courses you can watch the Brooklyn world stroll by: families, friends, and couples making their way along Smith Street, stopping in at By Brooklyn for local ginger syrup, popping by at Shlesky's for bialys and smoked fish, heading into Refinery for a pair of clogs, stopping to chat and greet friends from the playgrounds or bars, depending on age group and child count.

Arthur is a terrific addition to this super strip of retail and culinary wonder. The chef, Joe Isidori is also cooking at the South Fork Kitchen and is someone I got to know when he was cooking at a place called Harbor, a little restaurant-as-yacht on Hudson Street that served some inspired seafood but shuttered early in its promising life. This restaurant is a tribute to his father, Arthur, who for many years encouraged Joe to "make sure people are happy and stop making such a fuss." At his father's recent passing, Joe decided to honor his memory with a restaurant that combined his own passion for local farmers and modern cuisine, with his father's old-school Italian repertoire of stick-to-your ribs fare.

This sort of cross-generational cooking means you'll find choices like Spanish octopus with smoky romesco and black olives ($14) sharing menu space with more traditional places like handmade ricotta gnocchi with Mangalista pork ragout ($16). A radish and chickpea salad with a dressing fashioned from Argyle farm's buttermilk and goat's milk blue cheese is served alongside Mediterranean sardines with salsa verde (10) and chicken liver mousse with Sicilian spiced almonds and dried cherries ($9). Oh, and that platter of warm bread with honey-salted butter is also served with a plate of crunchy half-sour pickles, housemade, of course.

Grapefruit, lard, and sea urchin gussy up a pristine scallop crudo ($11), which is a gorgeous dish to start with. We followed it up with the anti-thesis of delicate: Joe's Sunday gravy, a hearty portion big enough for two to share and bring some home for the babysitter. Rigatoni gets loaded up with meatballs, saucy sow-braised beef ragu, and an almost embarrassingly large sausage link, too. Creamy spoonfuls of Salvatore's ricotta are on top. Paired up with a carafe of local red wine, and your favorite family and friends, it's a fine way to end a weekend.  

Fish is Isidori's sweet spot, and he's serving soft shell crabs at the moment, with spring leeks, English peas, Trevisano and Meyer lemon ($21), and a pollock "Livornese" with sweet preserved tomatoes, slices of Cerignola olives, and capers ($24), a bracing and bright combination just right for the pollock's sturdy white flesh. To end the meal, Isidori offers an Affogato, a buttermilk budino with duck fat popcorn and a seasonal panna cotta. With the check, you'll get a few little truffles to snack as you walk home.  

To be sure, there are many places to eat in Brooklyn, and in my neck of the woods, I often find myself at the same spots over and over again: Buttermilk Channel, Henry Public, Hibino, Colonie, Gran Electrica, and Prime Meats when I have a long wait in me. I'm looking forward to Saul Bolton's newest restaurant, Red Gravy, too. But Arthur has made it onto my list of regular haunts. It serves honest, good food, and pays attention to details like that butter service. I'm happy Isidori decided to listen to his dad. Sometimes parents do know best. At least that's what I'm trying to convince my three-year old of.

Arthur on Smith is located at 276 Smith St, (Btwn Sackett & Degraw St), (718) 360-2340.

Andrea Strong