Grilled squid and fried tentacles at Trade

^{Photo: JOEL VEAK}
When your first restaurant is an award-winning, critically praised commercial success, it must be tough to say no to investors waving pots of cash at you to open another place. But the perils of empire-building are well-known: your first child usually suffers while you rear the new baby. Keep expanding, and you risk losing sight of what made people love you (see Todd English). Jody Adams, the veteran chef/owner of Harvard Square's Rialto, had dabbled at expansion with her former partners in the Sapphire Restaurant Group, but she withdrew before they opened the ill-fated Rocca. She instead chose to retool Rialto on her own, keeping it among the city's best-regarded Italian venues.

But the siren song of the suddenly white-hot Seaport has proven irresistible: Adams has staked her claim by opening Trade (540 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, 617.451.1234), a shiny new temple to the cuisine of the Mediterranean perimeter. Helmed by executive chef Andrew Hebert, a longtime lieutenant, it's a noisy, attractive industrial space with massive exposed I-beams, walls and vaulted ceilings of white-painted exposed brick, and a firmament of teardrop Edison bulbs. Huge windows provide views of the nearby Federal Reserve Bank, Greenway, and towers of the Financial District. A wraparound marble bar dominates the room, anchored by the massive wood-fire oven that cooks hand-stretched dough for signature flatbreads ($11-$16), small, thin-crust ovals topped with rich flavor combinations like mushrooms, figs, Gorgonzola, and sage pesto.

Distinguishing Trade's menu from Rialto's predominantly Italian offerings are accents from the Middle East, seen in large plates like a half chicken ($26) with burnt orange, dates, and pistachios, and Asia, evidenced by the lemongrass chutney on the whole roasted fish ($24). Whether you call them tapas, mezze, or stuzzi, small plates show similar eclecticism while drawing on fine local ingredients, like five impeccable roasted littlenecks ($11) with charred scallions and a superb romesco that demands mopping up with bread. As delicious, and prettier, is a salad of grilled squid ($10) with purplish borlotti beans, sunny vinegar peppers, bright parsley, and briny olives, gorgeously topped with blossoms of batter-fried tentacles. The bar pours original cocktails like the Easy Fashion ($10), an Old-Fashioned stretched into a fizzy long drink, and beers drawn mainly from small American craft producers. The broad wine list boasts plenty of under-$60 bottles for everyday sipping, plus 14 wines by the glass cunningly poured from Erlenmeyer flasks. Round it out with friendly, unpretentious service, and it's not hard to understand how Trade has quickly drawn buzzing crowds. If successful expansion is a matter of timing, Adams appears to have chosen her moment perfectly.